Because It Was Him, Because It Was Me
by brazenbell
Summary: Leaf hates Blue's guts, she really does. Nothing's changed at all in the last nine years – except, of course, that Giovanni's come back. Blue/Leaf a.k.a. conflictingshipping. Futurefic for FireRed & HeartGold, with a little bit of Emerald thrown in.
1. Chapter 1

Leaf hates going home for Christmas.

Partly she loathes the provincial feel of the place, which she outgrew when she was eleven and has never, ever missed. Partly she dislikes the reminder of her missing father, who hasn't been home for Christmas since Leaf turned two – and of course, Leaf doesn't remember being two. She hates talking to her mom, who, underneath the poorly maintained façade of caring about Leaf's adventures and well-being, never has anything interesting or even remotely encouraging to say. Leaf remembers being twelve years old, charging through her front door after beating the Pokémon League, her body bursting with excitement and guilt and residual anxiety and sheer adrenaline, and hearing only, "Oh, dear, your Pokémon look a little tired. You should rest them a while." And her bed at home is just too tiny, her room is too tiny, the whole town is too tiny, and Professor Oak always criticizes her Pokédex even though she's caught four legendary Pokémon that most of the civilized world never believed existed –

But mostly she just can't stand Blue.

* * *

Because there are literally two families in Pallet Town and both of them have missing and/or dead parents, Leaf and her mother typically celebrate Christmas with the Oaks. On Christmas Day, she helps her mother and Daisy Oak prepare Christmas dinner, grateful for Daisy's presence. Unlike Leaf, Daisy (a) can actually cook and (b) never shuts up, which means Leaf doesn't have to talk to her mom. Leaf mostly does as she's told and thinks wistfully of her apartment in Goldenrod and of the surprising likeness between Daisy and her brother. The sharpness of their features, though, is singular on Blue, blending neatly with his hard mouth and powerful limbs, contrasting with his hazel eyes. Daisy is much softer-looking, although not necessarily more –

"I think he misses you," Daisy remarks.

"Who?"

"Blue! You never listen, Leaf!"

"I was listening," Leaf lies. "I just didn't think there was any way you could be saying that Blue missed me. Come on, Daisy, you know we've always been rivals."

"Friendly rivals," Daisy chastises.

Leaf remembers coming home for Christmas in her fifteenth year, the year that Blue handed control of the Viridian Gym to Silver and returned to Pallet Town to do research with his grandfather. He had never stopped training, though, and he had challenged her to a Pokémon battle in his backyard, and somehow – Leaf still is not sure what happened – the battle had disintegrated into an actual fistfight that culminated in a nasty wrestling match. Leaf had bitten Blue so hard she'd drawn blood, and his fist had raised an indigo bruise on her cheek. Eventually Charizard and Blastoise, who had stopped battling when the screaming started, had been forced to physically pull their trainers apart.

"Friendly, huh? That's one word for it."

"Come on, you guys have known each other forever. You should go over and say hi! We've got everything covered here."

"No, that's okay. I'll see him at dinner."

"You might as well get out from underfoot," Leaf's mother says.

It occurs to Leaf that if she has to spend any more time with her mother she will literally scream, and that at least if she screams at Blue it's not a big deal. "Okay."

Daisy beams.

It doesn't take long to find Blue, since Pallet Town only encompasses like ten square feet. He's sitting cross-legged on the cold brittle grass behind his house and drinking. "Aren't you cold?"

He glances up at her as she sits down beside him. "Nah. You're the one without pants."

"_I_ have a Charizard."

"Yeah? Where is he?"

"In his Pokéball. Mom doesn't like him stomping about the house."

"You can put him in the lab if you want. That's where Blastoise is. No one cares if they stomp around in there."

That actually sounds like a good idea. "Yeah? The Professor won't mind?"

Blue heaves himself to his feet and puts his flask into his pocket, hunting about for his keys. Together they crunch off toward the lab. Professor Oak's lab is massive, overflowing with books and computers and various other complicated-looking bits of equipment, but toward the back is a big empty space where Blue's Blastoise is curled up snoozing. He lifts his head when he senses his master.

Leaf releases Charizard, who snorts and clumps about in a circle. After breathing a cursory lick of flame at Blue, he turns around and goes to settle down a few feet away from Blastoise. No one would ever call the two Pokémon friends, but they've known each other for nine years and battled enough times that they've established a sort of understanding.

Blue takes his flask out of his pocket and, after a long pull, offers it to Leaf. It's whiskey. She wrinkles her nose and then gulps down a large swallow so Blue won't make fun of her. "Have you been drinking all day?"

"Don't act like you're my mom."

"I can't. You don't have one."

"Fine. Don't act like you're _your_ mom."

"Look, I'm not criticizing your alcoholic tendencies, just the fact that you're drinking cheap whiskey."

"Yeah? What do you drink, then?"

"Cheap vodka," Leaf admits.

Blue's face cracks into a grin. Leaf's stomach plummets. "C'mon."

They go into the Oaks' house, where Professor Oak is snoozing on the couch, and Blue rummages around in the kitchen. "Here." He tosses a glass at her and finds a half-empty bottle of vodka in the freezer, and together they go up to his room.

"Dinner's going to be ready in, like, an hour."

"And hopefully we'll be smashed by then."

"Merry Christmas."

Blue gulps some of his whiskey and says, "I didn't get you a present."

"You never get me a present. I never get you a present."

"Yeah, but Daisy's been giving me shit for it. We've known each other since we were children, and all that."

"You want to get me a present, you can admit I beat you in that one wrestling match." The vodka is making Leaf's stomach hot, and on the edge of her brain, it reminds her of how Blue's forearm in her throat made her stomach hot, too. These are things she prefers to ignore when she's sober, but Blue's got a way of sneaking through her cracks. In nine years, his room hasn't changed an ounce.

"Which wrestling match? There've been several, and, uh, I'm pretty sure I won them all, so."

"The Christmas after you started doing research."

"Oh, yeah. You bit me."

"You blacked my eye."

"And I'd do it again." Blue polishes off his flask and takes a pull straight from the bottle of vodka. Leaf pours a bit more into her glass.

"I'll bite you again if I have to, and you know it. Admit it, I destroyed you."

"I mean, we can finish this here and now if you want to."

"I don't want to wake up the Professor."

"A stampede of Tauros couldn't wake him up. It's fine, I'd be scared to lose too if I were you."

"Scared to lose like I was at the Pokémon League? Oh, wait –"

Blue downs the rest of the vodka, a solid three shots, and Leaf only has time to take a single gulp that makes her splutter before Blue is on her. He has the advantage, because he's on top and he's bigger and stronger, but she locks her legs around his waist and twists until he's flipped, and he's drunker than she is but not by much, and his shirt's pulled up and she rakes her fingernails down his abdomen –

"No scratching!"

He's got her wrists. He's on top of her again. She can't stop laughing. His teeth grin into her face, disastrously white. She bites his arm and he bites hers back, his hard hot body pressing her into his hardwood floor, his jeans rough against her bare legs.

"Well? Give up?"

She can't move. "I do not give up. I'm just taking a break. Hand me my drink."

"No vodka for you until you admit you lose. No vodka for sore losers."

"You give me my drink or I'll bite you again and make it hurt."

Blue is breathing really hard. He's also slurring his words a bit. In a single brief moment of vivid clarity Leaf is very glad she's drunk. Then the clarity fades and the inside of her head is hot and black again. Experimentally she shifts her legs apart, and Blue settles into her, his pelvis sliding seamlessly into hers. Both of their shirts have been tugged up. She closes her eyes.

"Hey, Leaf."

"Yeah?"

Although his hands are still grasping her wrists, his grip has loosened. She could probably get free if she tried. He wriggles down her body a little and rests his forehead in the curve beneath her collarbone, his hands releasing her wrists entirely and coming to settle on her upper arms. "I wish... I wish I could leave Pallet Town."

"Yeah?" Leaf repeats. She can feel his breath through the fabric of her shirt. He smells like whiskey and frozen soil and spicy shampoo. "How come?"

"Tired of... doing research. With Gramps. He's only interested in... cataloging. I wanna study how Pokémon breed. Didja know that ninety percent of Pokémon are related through evolution? Uh, known Pokémon. Known Pokémon. An' so they oughta be able to breed with each other more. But they can't. An' no one knows why."

"No, Blue. I did not know that." Her fingers are in his hair, and his hands are moving. His hands, his hands. "You should, um. Professor Elm in Johto. He does evolution. Discovered Pokémon eggs. You should work with him."

"Yeah, him 'n' Rowan in Sinnoh."

"Don't go to Sinnoh. 'S too far."

"Can't go to Johto, either. Nowhere to stay. Nothing to do."

Leaf opens her mouth to suggest that he stay with Lyra's family in New Bark Town, but for some reason the thought of Blue sleeping in Lyra's bed makes her sick, even though Lyra basically lives in Ecruteak these days. So instead she asks, "You ever thought about doin' your own research?"

"No point. Gramps's got all the equipment."

"You could stay with me in Goldenrod. 'Cause the city's right near a Day-care. They know all about what Pokémon can breed an' make eggs an' stuff."

"Yeah?"

"You never even seen my apartment. You oughta come visit."

"Is there a lab in Goldenrod?"

"Prob'ly." There's some of everything in Goldenrod.

"Mm." His hands have come to rest on her hips, his fingernails digging in. "You gonna admit I won the fight?"

"No way. Gimme my drink."

"C'mon, Leaf." Wobbling a bit, Blue sits up, straddling her. "Don't make me _really_ hurt you."

"You couldn't hurt me if you tried." She closes her eyes against his vicious grin and braces herself.


	2. Chapter 2

In the end they miss Christmas dinner. Blue locked the door behind them, and neither of them answer when Daisy knocks. They get drunk and withdraw their tiniest, weakest Pokémon from Blue's PC and spend the night staging an elaborate war. At last Leaf passes out on the floor, waking the next day to a roaring headache and a filter of pale winter light. Where is Blue?

Blue is on his bed, dead asleep. She shakes him mercilessly.

"Oh, ugh, hey! My head! Stop it!"

"You made me sleep on the floor? You jerk."

He sits up. That's when the duvet slides off him and she realizes he's in his boxers. Quickly she shifts her gaze to the ceiling. Don't blush, don't blush. "What happened?" he asks groggily. "Did we miss dinner?"

"Well, apparently, at some point, you took off your pants."

He jumps and pulls the duvet up. "Yeah, right, you probably took them off."

"Don't flatter yourself. I need the keys to the lab."

"What for?"

"Because Charizard's in there, you moron. And I'm going home. I'm not staying in this godforsaken town a minute longer than I have to."

"Okay, okay, keep your pants on."

"I'd say the same to you, but..."

Blue confirms that his boxers are covering all the important bits before swinging out of bed and wandering about in search of his pants. Leaf very pointedly does not watch the muscles in his bare back. His pants are slung over the PC. He squints. "How'd they get here?"

"I don't know. Oh, wait, yes I do. You were using them as a fort for your Rattata."

Once he's clothed, they pad outside to the lab. Leaf tries once or twice to make casual conversation about their dead Christmas, but Blue just responds with ill-tempered grunts. Even he's not usually this bad. It's a relief to meet up with Charizard again, even though he's asleep. "C'mon, you," Leaf says, nudging his massive flank with her foot. "We're going home. Say goodbye to Blastoise."

"He's got to get up too." Blue is perched on the massive Blastoise's shell, while Blastoise looks distinctly unimpressed. "We're going training on Victory Road."

Together the four go outside. Blue whistles for his Pidgeot, who appears almost immediately, and Leaf lets Aerodactyl out of his Pokéball. "Bye," Blue says, straddling Pidgeot's back. "See you next Christmas."

Leaf rolls her eyes. "What's your problem?"

"I don't have a problem. I'm tired."

"Sure, if by 'tired' you mean 'hungover as shit.' Come on, Blue. You and I both know that I can tell when you're pissed. Is this about last night? I already said I was sorry about Rattata, but you know she'll heal in the PC, and it wasn't like my Caterpie came out unscathed either –"

"No! You think I care about a pathetic little Rattata?"

Leaf winces. She forgets, sometimes, how callous Blue can be about his weaker Pokémon. Pidgeot rattles his feathers, and Blue goes on, "It's just not fair that you get to go back to an apartment in a big city in Johto. You're not the only one who hates this place."

"Oh."

For too long they stare at each other. Then Blue shakes his head angrily and calls Blastoise into his Pokéball. "I have to go. I have to be back by this afternoon to help Gramps."

"You... you could stay with me for a while," Leaf says. Beside her, Charizard snorts, astonished. "I meant what I said last night." Briefly her memory is interrupted by the tangible sensation of his breath on her skin, but she rips herself back to reality. They were just drunk and not paying attention. "If you wanted to do some research on your own. Or... open up your own lab. That sort of thing."

He pauses. "Whatever, Leaf."

Then Blue is off, out of sight, a vanishing twinkle in the sky. Leaf sighs and rubs her head. She thinks about saying goodbye to the Oaks or her mother but decides against it. She had also planned to visit Silver, but let's be real – she doesn't really like Silver. He's too serious and difficult, and he's probably still asleep anyway. Trying to put this whole holiday out of her mind, she calls Charizard into his Pokéball, climbs onto Aerodactyl's back, and flies off to Saffron City and the Magnet Train.

* * *

It's a relief to be back in Goldenrod. She lets Aerodactyl, Gengar, Vileplume, and Jolteon out on the roof and then goes to the river to release Gyarados. She doesn't bother trying to get Charizard to stay put somewhere; he always just follows her anyway. Her more mobile Pokémon know they'll have to be back by nighttime, but on non-training days she prefers to let them enjoy the fresh air.

Together she and Charizard return to the apartment. She cooks herself some eggs and settles down at the kitchen table. Normally Charizard would sit in the living room while she ate, because he hates her tiny kitchen, but now he comes in and fills up the space and stares at her with accusing red eyes, until finally she throws down her fork and demands, "What?"

The big orange Pokémon just blinks. She knows what.

"Yeah, yeah. He's not going to say yes."

Charizard exhales a puff of smoke into her plate.

"And so what if he does move in with us? I promise you won't have to hang out with Blastoise, okay?"

A rumble from Charizard's throat.

"I don't know what I was thinking. You didn't hear him last night; he just seemed so unhappy. Besides, you know, he's good to have around sometimes. Occasionally. Rarely. Okay, fine, I can't stand him, but he can't stand me either, so you know he won't take me up on the offer. Don't worry about it."

Charizard puts his nose in the air and prances into the living room. Leaf sighs angrily. Pokémon.

* * *

The next week is spent in the usual activities: visiting Lyra and Morty in Ecruteak and training on the Ice Path and in Dragon's Den. On Friday, just like every Friday, she takes the Magnet Train to Saffron to visit the President of Silph Co. She holds a significant amount of stock in the company – a gift from the President and the least he could do after that time she saved the whole complex from Team Rocket. Her presence soothes him, she knows, even if he never expressly says so, and she likes spending afternoons with him, even if the twitch he developed after being held up by Team Rocket kind of creeps her out. But hey, the funds from Silph mean she doesn't have to get a real job, and the President is a kind old man. And she makes his gift worthwhile. Every so often, he asks her to do him a favor, usually involving an employee who's been making off with top-secret research. But on a normal Friday they'll just have coffee together.

This is not a normal Friday.

"Oh thank Arceus, you're here," the President gasps out when she walks into his office.

"Is everything okay?"

"Okay? Okay! Look! See for yourself!"

Shakily, the President points to his computer screen.

DEAR PRESIDENT:

EXPECT ME SHORTLY.

GIOVANNI

Leaf's heartbeat picks up, but she just asks coolly, "What's the sender's email address?"

"We're already trying to trace it."

"It's probably a prank."

"But what if it's real? I have no Pokémon of my own, Leaf! I am an old, old man! What if he's been training all this time? What if Team Rocket has resurfaced? What if –"

"Calm down. I'll just hang out here all day, all right? You know he won't be able to beat me. There's a PC right in that corner; I'll withdraw Mewtwo if I have to." Even as she says it, Leaf shudders. Better to let Giovanni have Silph Co. than to unleash that psychic menace. She still regrets using the Master Ball on it. She should have let it eat itself up in Cerulean Cave. But then Blue probably would have found it and it would have destroyed him. Or, he would have caught it and tried to use it, and that would have been even worse. "Giovanni will go running right back to... wherever he's been for the last nine years."

The President exhales shakily. "Okay. Okay."

"I'm just going to step into the hallway to make a phone call, all right? I'll be right outside if you need me."

"Okay."

The poor President looks like he might faint dead away. Leaf supposes she would feel the same way if she'd been bodily threatened by that Nidoqueen. She calls Silver.

"Hello?"

"Silver?"

"What."

"Don't you dare use that tone with me right now. Is your dad back?"

Silence on the other end.

"Silver..."

Silence.

"Look, Silver, if you haven't heard from him, just tell me. The Silph President just got an email from someone claiming to be Giovanni, and he's freaking out, understandably, so just tell me if you've heard anything. No? You haven't?"

"My father abandoned me when I was eight," Silver replies, his voice dull. "I hardly think I'd be the first one he'd contact if he returned. I'm no President of Silph Corporation, you know."

Leaf clenches a fist. "We've all got dead or missing parents, Silver. Don't act like such a martyr. This is important."

"Who's so important? The overbearing weakling who runs Silph Co.? Just because he funds your extravagant lifestyle, Leaf, doesn't mean I –"

Leaf tells him to go fuck himself and calls Lyra instead.

"Aren't you in Kanto today?"

"Yeah, but this is important. The President got a mysterious email from someone who says Giovanni is back."

"What?"

"Yeah. Well, actually the person is claiming to be Giovanni. It might be a prank. But, uh, well, it might actually be Giovanni, you know?"

"Ohmigod, have you told Silver? Or – does Silver know? Ohmigod, he'll be so upset, he hates his father –"

"Well, I mean, I called him and sort of fucked it up, so I was wondering if you could, uh..."

Morty's voice penetrates from the background. "Are you talking about Silver _again_?"

"Ohmigod, Morty, hush, this is important! Leaf, I'll call Silver, but I can't come to Kanto today. Morty and I have tickets for that boat party in Olivine. I mean, I'd cancel, but you said yourself it's probably a hoax..."

Typical Lyra. Leaf still can't believe she once lost to this girl. "It's just, if Giovanni actually shows up here at the President's office..."

"You'd totally win, girl! You beat him when you were, like, eleven!"

Lyra hadn't been at that battle, though. True, she'd held her own against the other Rocket execs three years later, when Leaf had been training alone in Mount Silver; but she hadn't ever met Giovanni. She didn't know his ruthlessness. Charizard had spent weeks in the Pokémon Center. Leaf thinks of the President shivering and twitching uncontrollably in his office and says hurriedly, "I'll call Lance. Wait, no I won't, he's training in Dragon's Den today, he won't be able to receive my call. Shit. What's Eusine doing?"

"Morty, what's Eusine doing today?... Morty says he's probably home in Celadon. Don't let him battle Suicune too hard!"

"You know he wouldn't dare let his precious Suicune get a single scratch." Lyra had traded Suicune to Eusine years ago.

But Eusine didn't pick up, and Surge was oddly evasive, and the Karate Master was apparently off training in a cave somewhere. Why was everyone always training in caves? For the first time it occurred to Leaf that she had hardly bothered to cultivate any relationships in Kanto, and now she was facing the consequences. The President was facing the consequences. She trembled.

Then her phone rang. She leapt on it, praying for Eusine or Kiyo or even Silver, but no such luck.

"Look, Blue, if you are going to give me hell for something, I do not need it right now!"

"What's got your panties in a twist?"

"I'm at Silph Co. –"

"Oooh, sorry, forgot you were special."

"– and the President thinks he's just been threatened by Giovanni."

For a moment Blue is actually quiet. "Wait. Team Rocket Giovanni? Viridian Gym Giovanni?"

"You know another Giovanni?"

"Where are you?"

"I just told you, I'm at Silph, waiting with the President in case a new and improved version of Team Rocket actually shows up."

"I'm coming over."

"I don't need your help!"

"I'm coming over."

Blue clicks off.


	3. Chapter 3

For the rest of the afternoon, Leaf and Blue trade off standing guard outside the President's door and outside the Silph building itself. But by the end of the day, there's still been so sign of Giovanni, not even so much as a Rocket Grunt, so Leaf and Blue bundle the President off to his house.

"Don't leave me! Please!"

"President, I need to go home."

"Tell me about it," Blue mutters, rubbing his eyes. Blastoise flops to the sidewalk like a Snorlax.

"Besides," Leaf continues, ignoring Blue even though she sympathizes completely, "you've got two Silph trainers standing guard outside your door. They both have my number, and I'll take the Magnet Train over at the slightest sign of danger, all right?"

Unconvinced, the President opens his mouth to squall again, but Blue shoves him inside his house and slams the door shut. Then, of course, he glares at Leaf.

"Don't give me that face."

"You told me Giovanni was coming."

"I did not. I said someone _claiming_ to be Giovanni _said_ he was coming."

"I wasted _all day_ –"

"Hey! You called me, not the other way around! It's not like I asked you for help!"

"Admit it. If he'd shown up you would've been glad I was there."

"Please. I've beaten him before. I think Gyarados can take on a couple of ground-type Pokémon."

"Yeah, and Blastoise here could knock out your stupid Gyarados any day."

"Shut up, Blue. It's not my fault you decided to go sticking your nose into my business. Why did you call me, anyway?"

To her astonishment, he turns scarlet. They haven't actually spoken since he arrived, preferring to trade shifts and keep a close lookout for Giovanni. Now he mumbles, "I was just... uh... thinking about your offer."

Her heart skips, but she keeps her cool. Beside her, Charizard pricks up his ears. "What offer?"

"About... uh... maybe hanging out in Goldenrod for a while." She's never heard Blue stammer this much. She rather likes it. "Trying to set up my own lab. Doing some research with the Day-care couple. If it's cool with you. I mean, I get if it's not. I'm not super psyched about the prospect of living with you either, but it would only be for a bit, until I found some space and maybe some funding..."

"No, it's okay."

"I – really?"

"Sure. As long as it was, um, only for a little while."

"Of course. Like maybe a couple of weeks."

"At most."

"Right. I think I actually read somewhere that Goldenrod has even more apartment buildings than Saffron. So probably I'll just need to stay with you for like one week. Maybe two. Or, uh, maybe less."

"Yeah. Yeah, don't worry, you'll definitely be able to find a place. If you, you know, decide you want to stay in Goldenrod. You might not like it."

"I'm sure if you can handle it, I can handle it."

"It's pretty big."

"I'll be fine."

"Fine." Blastoise and Charizard roll their eyes at each other. Leaf ignores them. "So, uh... you want to, like, come over? Crash with me tonight, check out the place, bring your stuff over in the morning?"

"Yeah, I guess. Whatever."

"You don't have to."

"No, no, it's cool. I'll, uh, just fly back to Pallet Town real quick and pack an overnight bag. Might as well get used to your apartment."

"Right. Especially if you're going to be spending a lot of time there."

"Well, I mean, I probably won't be in the apartment a lot."

"Oh, that's a relief."

"Because I'll be working."

"Of course."

Blue flies away like he can't wait to be rid of her. She turns to Charizard. "_Fine_," she sighs. "You were right. Are you happy now?"

_No_.

"What do you want me to do? I can't just tell him no!"

Charizard just glares at her.

Leaf takes the Magnet Train home, frantically tidies her apartment, and tries desperately to look casual while also trying not to look like she's trying to look casual. Charizard is not fooled. He plops in the corner like an overgrown cat and glares at her the whole time. She's just in the process of lining up her Pokéballs on her bedroom dresser when Blue calls. He's in Goldenrod, and he's predictably miffed that she didn't give him the address.

"You keep using that tone and I won't give it to you at all."

"Look, if you don't want me to stay with you, you could've just said so –"

"Ugh, calm down! I'm number 710 in Miltank Manor. Got it? Is that too much for you to remember?"

He snorts and clicks off. Leaf goes into the kitchen. Charizard is singeing shapes in her carpet.

After half an hour, a loud knock sounds. Leaf drops the dishes that she's been mindlessly restacking and rushes to the door. It's Blue, carrying a beat-up black sports bag and looking a little more fatigued than Leaf thinks is strictly called for. "You look like you got rolled in an alley. It's the Magnet Train, not an international flight."

"We can't all be jetsetters, Leaf. Some of us have real jobs."

"Oh, yes, you're so working-class. How's working for your granddaddy going?"

"Awful, apparently," Blue mutters, and Leaf steps aside to let him in. She recognizes the bag from their days as traveling Pokémon trainers and swallows. Blastoise tries to squeeze through the doorway, but he lacks Charizard's lithe outline and can't fit, so Blue just grunts and calls him into his Pokéball.

"Okay, well, hi," Leaf says, suddenly feeling enormously awkward. "Um, this is the living room, obviously, there's the kitchen, that's my room. There's a bathroom right there. Here's the second bedroom, where you'll be staying. If you stay."

Blue tosses his bag onto the sofa and paces around, his hands stuck into his pockets. "Nice place."

"Well, I needed a place with high ceilings, since Charizard refuses to go into his Pokéball." Charizard is still curled up in the corner. He blows at Blue's ankles.

"Does the Silph President pay for all this?"

"Look, if you're going to be a dick –"

Blue raises his hands, palms out. "Hey, I'm just asking."

"He doesn't_ pay for it_. I have stock in the company."

"Yeah? Well then I hope Giovanni does come back. Maybe if I beat Giovanni to a pulp, the Silph President will give me some 'stock in the company' too, huh?"

Anger flashes behind Leaf's eyeballs. She sprints forward and punches Blue, hard, but he twists away and she only hits his arm. "Don't say that!"

"Ow! I didn't mean it."

"I'm serious!"

He grabs at her wrists and she struggles, kicking at his shins, but he shouts, "Okay! I do remember Giovanni, you know. No one wants him to come back," and she falls still. They're both silent for a moment. Leaf is still angry, thinking of the President's tic and very pointedly not thinking about the fact that Blue hasn't let her go. When he finally releases her, apparently convinced that she won't hit him again, Leaf asks tentatively,

"Where... where do you think he's been?"

"Under Tohjo Falls? Lyra found his radio."

"That was six years ago."

"Probably in some other cave, then. Everyone's always training in caves."

"I was just thinking that today."

"Great minds."

Leaf manages a smile. She goes in her room to get Charizard's Pokéball (he does sleep in there, even though he insists at popping out at the crack of dawn), and when she comes out ten minutes later Blue's emerging from the guest room, wearing low-slung track bottoms and a T-shirt, his hair all rucked up. He glances at her and quickly away, goes into the kitchen and calls, "You got any liquor around here?"

"Above the fridge," Leaf shouts. She bites her lip and, after a slight hesitation, follows him. She might as well try to be civil, as awful as he is. Then she catches a glimpse of him reaching for the cupboard over the fridge, balanced on the balls of his feet with the T-shirt pulled up across the muscles in his back, and she backs out carefully and flees to her room.

Charizard follows. By the time he's settled on the floor beside her bed, gazing up at her almost sympathetically, she's sprawled across the bed with her face buried in her hands.

"What was I _thinking_?" she groans.

Charizard doesn't answer. He can't talk.


	4. Chapter 4

"You invited him to _live_ with you?" Lyra repeats incredulously. "What were you _thinking_?"

"I know! I know! I know!"

"You hate him. He hates you! You hate each other!"

"I know, but he was so angry –"

"He's always angry!"

In the background, Morty's tinny voice asks, "Silver's living with Leaf?"

"– he just needed a place to crash in Goldenrod for a couple of days, he wants to work with the Day-care couple, he's interested in evolution, I don't know, he's scouting around for a research position right now, maybe he'll get an office at the Radio Tower, at least they've got equipment, I don't _know_ –"

"He moved in with you and he doesn't even have a _job_? He moved in with you for _no reason_?"

"Leave me alone!"

"You're the one who called me! It's not Silver, Morty, it's Blue. Hang on, Leaf, I'm putting you on speaker."

"No, don't –"

"Leaf?"

"Hi, Morty."

"You're living with Blue now? Are you guys dating?"

"NO!"

"Oh. I thought you had a thing with Lance."

"I'm not dating Lance!"

"She's not dating Lance."

"Why are you living with Blue?"

"I don't know."

"She doesn't know," Lyra clarifies.

Morty's clearly unsatisfied with this explanation, but Leaf doesn't have a better one, and she hangs up on Lyra feeling worse than ever. She's been trapped in her room all day, bundled in her quilt with Charizard pacing the apartment, and she sort of wants to cry. In a misguided fit of charity she'd lent her key to Blue this morning so he could scope out workplaces, so she hasn't been able to leave the apartment. She's already called the President three times to make sure there was no more word from Giovanni, and all her other friends are busy training. Leaf isn't the type to chat on the phone anyway, and she's definitely not the type to spend all day indoors. Now Charizard is stir-crazy and edgy and Leaf wants nothing more than to punch a hole in the wall or, better yet, Blue's face.

She hears the front door lock jiggling and Blue swearing and decides, fuck it, maybe she will.

"You're going to fucking break it!"

Charizard starts and glowers at her but she doesn't care. She untangles herself from the quilt, goes into the living room, and tries to rip the front door open, but Blue's fucked it up from the other side, and when they finally work it out he's pissed too. "What the fuck is wrong with your fucking door?" he asks, tossing his bag down like he owns the place.

"What's wrong with the door? Nothing, it's a door! What's wrong with you that you can't turn a goddamn key?"

"It's not my fault you've got six locks! What, are you afraid someone's gonna come and steal you? You're not exactly prime real estate –"

It's like he'd punched Leaf in the stomach. "What's that supposed to mean!"

"Well, one of us had a fan club back in our trainer days, and it wasn't you!"

"Well, one of us won the Pokémon championship, and it wasn't you!"

"It _was_ me," he grits out. "I won first."

"And then you lost."

"Oh please. You lost too, to Lyra."

"Three years later!"

"Have you seen that girl? The pigtails, the squealing, the way she pines after Silver –"

"She's dating Morty!" Actually Leaf has no idea whether Morty and Lyra are actually dating – they seem a little too casual for that – but whatever.

"Yeah, whatever. All I'm saying is, if you lost to her, that doesn't say much about you as a Trainer, does it? And now you just sit around here all day –"

"I had to sit around here all day because _someone_ had my key!"

"Take your fucking key!" he yells, throwing it at her. "And take the goddamn copy too! I'll be out of your hair in ten minutes, all right?" He storms into his bedroom. "This is so stupid, you are so stupid –"

Leaf is left in the living room, oddly deflated, gazing down at the two identical keys in her hand. No, they're not precisely identical; one is shiny and new, and a different shade of gold. "You made a copy of my key?" she says softly, and then, when it's obvious he can't hear her, calls, "Blue! You made a copy of my key?"

"Well, I figured it made fucking sense if I was going to be living with you, but since that's obviously not going to work out you can keep it for your next houseguest. Good luck to the next poor bastard who gets stuck in your apartment for more than ten hours. Ugh."

But Leaf can't be properly angry. Something about the two matching keys in her hand sort of unfocuses everything else, and Blue just said, "I'm going to be living with you," and she's already started thinking of the second bedroom as his bedroom, and it's entirely possible that the only thing worse than having him around is letting him go back to Pallet Town.

So she goes into his room. He's staring angrily at the newly packed duffel bag like it's going to zip itself. She tries to get the word "Stay" out of her mouth, but it won't come, so she settles on, "You might as well have dinner before you go. I was going to make spaghetti. Yeah? With that red sauce you like, the one with all the chopped onions and peppers."

Blue doesn't look at her but she can tell he's focused his attention on her. "How'd you know that?"

"Daisy told me." Like five years ago, but she doesn't mention that.

He huffs. "Yeah, all right."

As they're walking to the kitchen, she thrusts the key into his hand. "You might as well hold onto this, too. It's good to have someone who has a spare, in case I lock myself out or something."

"You would lock yourself out."

"I would not! I have never, ever done that."

"Do you remember that time the Power Plant manager lost his keys and thought they'd been stolen?"

"Yes! He was so mad! He threw a fit."

"He always assumes people are stealing his stuff."

"That's because of that time the Rocket Grunt with the weird accent stole his Machine Part."

"Yeah, but the Machine Part was actually valuable. Who wants the Power Plant manager's house keys? Have you _seen_ his house? It's in the shoddy part of Cerulean."

"Isn't he fabulously wealthy?"

"He told Gramps that he 'works for love, not money.'" Blue snorts. Leaf thinks that Blue shouldn't be laughing, since he does the exact same thing, but she files the thought away and ignores it. Blue reaches for her liquor cabinet and knocks into the chess set she keeps on top of the fridge. "Why is there a chess set on top of your fridge?"

"I keep it out to play with Lance. Chess helps with battle strategy."

"You want to play?"

Leaf pauses. "Sure. After dinner."

"Bet I can beat you five times faster than Lance can."

"Bet you can't. He kicks my ass every time."

"You suck at battle strategy."

"Are you serious? I have literally never seen you in a battle where you didn't start out by having Blastoise use Hydro Pump. You used Hydro Pump against my Vileplume once."

Blue leans against the doorframe while she cooks spaghetti with red sauce, and then they eat together, and then they play chess (Leaf wins), and then they watch an hour of some old film with two boys riding a train. It's when they're watching the film that Blue mumbles, "I guess I didn't mean the thing about you and real estate and fan clubs or whatever."

Leaf doesn't answer. Twenty minutes later Blue goes into his room and unpacks his duffel bag and they both go to bed.

Charizard hasn't gone into his Pokéball, even though it's late. He's watching her with a strange look in his eyes. Not annoyance, not disbelief. Worry.

"Don't start," Leaf tells him, and he looks like he might argue but he doesn't, and he just watches as she gets ready for bed. He blows an affectionate puff of smoke at her forehead once she's all settled in, and then he retreats into his Pokéball, and Leaf falls asleep thinking of the few inches that had stayed between her and Blue as they watched the film, and of his rough shaky voice when he'd shouted that she wasn't prime real estate, and the look on his face as he'd watched her cook dinner, and the way his hand had pressed against hers when she gave him back the key.


	5. Chapter 5

The next day, Blue takes the Magnet Train back to Kanto and packs up for real. When Leaf gets home he's hanging his clothes in the closet.

"Why do you have six identical black jackets?"

"Why do you have, like, twenty identical red skirts?"

"This is carmine. I look great in carmine."

"You'd look great in pants, too. Your legs must be freezing. Oops, I forgot you keep your apartment at seventy degrees even though it's December."

"You mention my income again and I'll turn the thermostat down to fifty."

Blue snorts and throws a balled-up pair of socks at her head. She throws them back, aiming for his crotch, and wanders off to find some takeout menus and set up the chess board and pretend that Blue hadn't just said she looked great. "Did anyone say anything about you staying with me for a bit?"

"Gramps was annoyed I was ditching him, but he and I have had this conversation like a million times."

"About me?"

"No, about _me,_ working in another lab. Not everything is about you."

"And Daisy? My mom?"

"I didn't see your mom. Daisy just said to give you her best."

It's all oddly anticlimactic. Leaf is actually disappointed. She thought there'd be more of an uproar.

But they settle down for another movie after the chess game, and there's a little less space between them.

* * *

At the end of the week, Blue finds a job.

"It's at the Global Terminal. It's perfect. They have so much data, you wouldn't believe it."

"I thought you wanted to do evolution stuff? You give up on your dreams so easily. And to think you once wanted to be Pokémon Champion."

For once, Blue doesn't take the bait, instead mixing himself a celebratory cocktail. "Want one?" When Leaf shakes her head, he continues, "I'm going to observe the Day-care on Saturday mornings. I already worked out an agreement with Ethan."

"His grandparents don't mind?"

"Guess not."

* * *

"Heard you were living with Blue," Lance says cautiously, the next time she sees him. It's about two and a half weeks after Blue's moved in, which is a long time for her to go without seeing Lance. But she's been spending more time in Saffron to keep an eye on Silph Co., and Lance's grandfather had wanted him for some elaborate Dragon Master thing. Now they're fishing on Route 44 with Jasmine, although Jasmine, predictably, didn't bring a rod because she couldn't bear the thought of hurting the Pokémon. Wilton is there too, catching more Poliwag than Leaf and Lance put together. They don't mind. Either of them could thrash him in a Pokémon battle blindfolded and with their hands tied, and everyone knows it.

"Yeah," Leaf says, not looking at Lance. "It's all right."

"Who's Blue?" Wilton asks, obviously unaware of the tension.

"Professor Oak's grandson," Lance replies tersely. "He's a scoundrel."

"You _would_ call him a scoundrel. Who are you?"

Jasmine puts in, "I met him once. I thought he had some... positive qualities."

"Jasmine," Lance says, "you assume everyone has positive qualities. You thought Silver had positive qualities."

"He turned out all right, didn't he?"

"I suppose, but the first time you met him, he yelled at you for taking care of Amphy."

"It wasn't so bad."

"He made you cry."

"Well, Blue isn't like that," Jasmine says. "He's not as... sharp-edged as Silver. He's more... I don't know... he's not kind, of course, not at all, but I got the sense that he _could_ be kind if only someone else were kind to him first."

"Well, no one would be, because he's a jerk. So, why are you living with him, Leaf?"

"He needed a place to stay in Goldenrod. Jerk or not, I've known him practically since we were born. It's only for a bit, not a permanent thing."

"So nothing's going on?"

Leaf quirks the corner of her mouth and rolls her head on her shoulders to look at Lance. "Nothing like what?"

Lance purses his lips at her. He isn't amused. "Leaf."

"No, Lance. Nothing's going on."

It's a long time before Lance says, "Good," and the syllable's nearly drowned out by the splashing Poliwhirl Wilton's just caught.

* * *

The week after she goes fishing with Lance, her rent bill comes in. Blue hasn't started looking for a new place yet, so he pays half of it.

* * *

"You're not dating Lance – hic! – are you?"

Leaf doesn't even open her eyes. "Lyra."

"What?"

"It's one in the morning."

"Is it? I – hic – just got back from the Game Corner, sorry."

"Where are you? Are you in Goldenrod?"

"Celadon. We're visiting Eusine."

"Ugh. Where's Morty? Did you seriously call me in the middle of the night to talk about Lance?"

"Morty's off making out with – hic! – with Eusine somewhere."

Leaf sits up. "...Is it hot?"

"Yeah. I'll send you pictures. And Eusine made me think of legendaries which made me think of dragons which made me think of Lance, and he was, like, weirdly upset that you're living with Blue now, so, like –"

"He's got _no reason_ to be upset. I'm not dating Lance _or_ Blue. I'm going back to sleep. And if I don't wake up to pictures of Morty hooking up with Eusine, I'll be pissed."

Lyra sends five HD photos of Morty and Eusine making out in the Celadon Game Corner basement, and Morty's got his shirt off, and yeah, it's hot.

* * *

It's been six weeks since Blue moved in. Six weeks of shared breakfasts and dinners and casual rooftop battles with Charizard and Blastoise. Six weeks of chess games and video games and one very ill-advised card game that nearly turned into strip poker. Six weeks of training as usual, and then coming home to Blue settled down on the couch with a drink.

He drinks every other day, just about, but never more than one, and he's started buying his own alcohol so Leaf can't exactly complain that he's drinking her out of house and home (although sometimes she does complain, just for fun). He's not a proper alcoholic, never any more angry or abusive than he is sober, but she still can't help but wish that he wouldn't drink quite so much. On the other hand, there's something about finding him so relaxed in her home, all loose-limbed in his sweatpants, sometimes with a T-shirt but sometimes without, that makes her melt. If liquor's what it takes to get him to look that way, then liquor's what he'll have.

She comes home late after a rough day of training in Mount Silver. It shouldn't have been rough, but she'd forgotten to buy more Repels and the wild Pokémon had all been particularly stubborn. Jolteon and Gyarados had run out of PP and she'd accidentally sent out Vileplume against a Golbat. After being healed at the Pokémon Center, Charizard had decided to rest in his Pokéball for once, which is how Leaf wound up entering her apartment carefully and quietly, without Charizard clomping and snorting his way behind her.

Blue is asleep on the couch, the TV muted, a half-empty glass of whiskey on the floor beside him. Leaf puts her bag down gently and goes to pick up the glass so he won't wake up and grab for it and spill it all over the carpet. His hair's flopping in his eyes, and his chest rises and falls slowly and calmly. A vein beats in the side of his neck, just beneath his ear. Leaf kind of wants to touch it. He's not wearing his jacket, and his plain white T-shirt falls limply over his chest, the short sleeves tugged up nearly to his shoulders.

He cracks an eye open. "Like what you see?"

Leaf jumps. "Contrary to popular belief, I'm not into boozed-up layabouts. How long have you been here? Did you pass out?"

"Waitin' for you to get home. Gonna watch the movie with me?"

"In a bit. Did you eat already?"

"Nah. Not hungry."

"Well, I am. Do you want anything?" She marches into the kitchen quickly to hide the blush crawling up her face and sees Blue's jug of whiskey sitting on the counter. That bottle was full yesterday; now it's a third empty. Suddenly she's not hungry anymore. "How much did you _drink_?"

"I told you," Blue calls. "I was waiting for you to get home. Come back here before I have to come get you."

"You are _not_ allowed to stand up. If you stand you'll fall over yourself and trip and break something." She puts the whiskey away, hiding it behind the cereal, before returning to the living room. "All right, budge up."

He's still stretched out, looking up at her. "You really think a couple glasses of whiskey are enough to knock me off my feet?"

"You didn't eat."

"Don't lecture me."

"Right now you're asking for it. Come on, budge up."

He gazes up at her for another minute before rolling over. He's still spread lengthwise along the sofa, but there's room for another person to lie lengthwise alongside him. "Come on, then."

Leaf swallows. What is he playing at? But his eyes are dark, and Leaf's never been one to back away from a challenge.

She lies down beside him and rolls so that she's facing the TV, her back flush against his chest. There's a moment where he doesn't do anything, as if he didn't really expect her to take the bait. A quick rush of triumph – and then his arm snakes around her waist and tugs her in, and his breath is hot on her neck, and she gets a quick rush of a very different sort.

The TV is still muted.

"Hey," she whispers hoarsely, before she can think about what she's saying, "I think I want a drink too."

He lets her up, and she goes and pours herself a full glass of whiskey and gulps it down in five minutes. She shouldn't be drinking. She should make herself a grilled cheese sandwich and take her bag into her room and take her Pokéballs out. What if Charizard decides he wants to come out after all? He won't be able to, because his Pokéball's stuck in the bag. How long will it take for all this whiskey to hit? At this rate she'll be drunk in ten minutes. She really ought to make a sandwich.

Instead she returns to the living room, flicking out the lights as she goes, and lies back down. Immediately Blue's arm wraps around her. She pushes back into him and sighs. "You're warm."

Yep, drunk.

"Warm because you keep your apartment at seventy degrees," Blue mumbles. "Your utilities're through the roof."

"Don't worry your pretty li'l head about it."

"If we're gonna split the rent then we're splitting the utilities too."

Leaf's intestines squirm. "Let's just worry about it next month, okay?"

"Mm." He presses his lips to the back of her neck. Involuntarily she shivers and immediately hates herself for it. "That's your brilliant strategy, then? To avoid thinking about your finances? The chess's doing you a lotta good."

"At least'm better'n you."

"I beat you last week."

"You cheated."

"You can't _cheat_ at _chess_."

His body is hot and hard. The only light in the room comes from the muted TV. The alcohol has flooded her brain, making her vision and her decisions fuzzy. Heat pools in the pit of her stomach, the way it always does when Blue is close like this. "'S like wrestling all over again," she mumbles.

"Hm?"

"Being close. And – your arms. Like wrestling."

Blue lifts himself up and presses his mouth into the curve of her neck. Leaf sighs and shuts her eyes, tilting her head back. If she keeps her eyes closed, maybe she can pretend she's with someone else. She tries to pretend he's Lance, but it doesn't work. She wants him to be Blue. "This is better than wrestling," he whispers and opens his mouth. She can feel him shaking, or maybe that's just her own body shaking.

She rolls until she's facing him but he shifts too. His mouth is still at her neck, still trembling. She puts her hands on the back of his neck, in his hair. He bites down, not hard, just grazing her skin with his teeth, and she sighs again.

"Hey," Blue says, his mouth still on her skin, "um."

"If you stop I will rip your guts out," Leaf says thickly.

He laughs a little, throaty and low, and then he kisses her earlobe, her cheekbone, her eyebrow, her eyelid, the corner of her mouth. It's Leaf herself who finally turns her head, just a hair, and presses their lips together.

Blue sort of groans.

Emboldened and drunk, she licks into his mouth, and that is either the best or the worst idea ever because he groans again and the sound vibrates straight through her body like electricity, all the way to her toes, and she moans again without meaning to _at all_. He grabs her hair and literally manhandles her until she's right where he wants her, his legs bracketing hers and his hips thrust into hers, and it's just where Leaf wants to be too, but fuck Blue for making her do what he wants. She wraps her legs around his waist and he breaks the kiss just long enough to gasp her name, and she takes advantage of the opportunity to yank at his shirt. When he sits up to pull it off, she grabs his shoulders and flips him over so that they fall off the sofa and now she's on top.

"Ha," she says absently. She's really turned on. Blue is shirtless now and she sort of forgets everything else. "What did I win?"

"You should take your clothes off," Blue says seriously.

And that doesn't seem like the worst idea ever, so.

They kiss for what feels like hours. She thinks she might like him to swallow her whole. She must be really drunk.

She stumbles off him, clutching at her head. His hands follow her. They don't let go of her hips until she's completely out of reach. "We should," she begins. "We should. Um."

His eyes, nearly black, are fixed on her body, but when she speaks, his gaze travels up to her face. Something in his expression shifts. "Are you okay?"

"Just kinda drunk, still."

"You're – oh." He looks at the ceiling.

Leaf musters up all her courage and finishes, "We should go to the bedroom. Mine. Or yours. One of them."

Blue doesn't say anything.

"Blue?"

"Yeah," he answers hoarsely, slurring. "Yeah, go on, I'll be in in a second. I just wanna, um, go to the bathroom."

"I – okay."

Leaf gathers up her clothes, feeling awkward for the first time all night and increasingly uneasy, and stumbles into the bedroom.

Two minutes later the front door clicks.

Leaf's heart stops. She feels sick.

She waits for ten whole minutes before going back to the living room.

Blue is gone.

Leaf stands in the middle of the room in her underwear, staring at the rumpled sofa. She goes into the kitchen, gets out the whiskey, pours the contents down the drain, and smashes the empty glass bottle against the wall. Then she returns to the sofa and lies down, her knees pulled up to her chest. She doesn't even get her Pokéballs out. She's still drunk and alone when she falls asleep, and she's drunk and alone when Team Rocket comes to kidnap her.


	6. Chapter 6

When she wakes up, she's on the floor of a small room. There's a bed, which no one has bothered to tuck her into, and a plastic bucket, and walls paneled in white tile, and a single small window. She's also still mostly naked, and her head hurts like hell.

She forces herself to stay calm. What does she remember? Young men in black clothes burst into her apartment and covered her face with a cloth, and she couldn't defend herself, and she had no Pokémon, and Blue was gone, and she couldn't breathe, and then she was unconscious.

Leaf's heart is racing. She can't help but wish she were wearing more clothes. She snatches the scratchy blue blanket from the bed and fashions it into a sort of toga, then looks out the window. Everything is startlingly familiar, so familiar she can't place it. She knows those yellow bricks, those green roofs.

She's in Saffron.

_The President._

Leaf takes a deep breath and tries the door, knowing before she does that it's going to be locked. There's a small window with bars set into it, still lined with sawdust shavings. No one's been kept here before, then. Either Team Rocket hasn't been here long, or they've been saving the room for her.

Team Rocket. Giovanni.

Leaf is scared. For the first time she understands how the President must have felt nine years ago, facing down Giovanni's Nidoqueen. Without her Pokémon, she's just a scrawny girl. Her blood pounds in her head, the terror making it difficult to think. She's alone. Alone and helpless and trapped.

"Calm down," she tells herself. "Just think of it as another battle. Think of it like one of those strange gyms, like Surge's gym, with the puzzles. You just need to figure it out."

Leaf tries not to think about how shit she is at puzzles. But at least she knows how to fight.

She spends half an hour combing the room for – well, for what, she doesn't know. Something new. She turns up nothing, of course. The room is bare and sparse but for the bed and the bucket, and the window doesn't open, although she's certainly too high to jump anyway. And she still doesn't know what Team Rocket wants. She stays braced, her skin prickling, waiting for someone to open the door and attack her, but no one does. Eventually she takes the bucket and slams it into the window, one, two, three, four times. The glass doesn't shatter, but the bucket splits into two sharp-edged pieces. She struggles to break the plastic, eventually coming up with a long jagged triangle, and settles down to wait.

Thirty minutes later, just when she can't possibly stand the anticipation any more and she thinks maybe she'll just try to kick down the door until her foot bleeds, someone's face appears in the door's little window.

It's Silver.

Leaf is up and stabbing through the bars before she can even breathe. If Silver weren't such a good trainer himself, he'd be missing an eye. As it is, he leaps back and she misses by a mile. "Get the _fuck_ back here," she screams. "You _traitor_!"

Silver darts forward and grabs her wrist before shoving his hand through the bars and slapping it over her mouth. "Shut _up_," he growls. "Is Lyra with you?"

Leaf stills. When he removes his hand gingerly, she whispers, "Lyra? She was kidnapped too?"

"Of course."

"I don't understand. I thought Giovanni just wanted me because I've been defending Silph Co."

"Lyra's not with you, then."

"No. Can you help me? Silver, what's going on?"

"I'm not working with my dad," he says in his gravelly voice, clearly offended.

"What else was I supposed to think? I was kidnapped in the middle of the night, Silver, and I was _drunk_, and now I'm..." Leaf stops herself. Not scared. Don't tell him you're scared.

But Silver's already been distracted. "Are you _naked_?"

"I'm wearing underwear," she says with dignity.

"So you were drunk and naked in the middle of the night. Don't you live with Blue?"

"He was out. What's going on?"

"You haven't figured it out yet?"

"You are such a prick. I swear, if you give me another speech on how superior your intellect is, I will break this door in half and punch your face in. Tell me what's going on."

"I can't believe you were the Pokémon Champion for so long. Don't you ever stop to think?"

"I've been distracted!"

"Think about it, Leaf. Remember Team Rocket. What did Giovanni always want?"

Leaf thinks back to her last encounter with Giovanni, nine years ago. The Master Ball. The Silph Scope. Pokémon fossils. "He wanted Pokémon."

"What kind of Pokémon?"

"Uh. Powerful Pokémon?"

"Right. The most powerful Pokémon." Silver settles back on his heels, like he's explained something.

"Well, I'm not a Pokémon, Silver."

"You are so thick."

"I really don't know why Lyra's friends with you."

"Shut up. Neither do I. Now stop and think for a moment. Which are the most powerful Pokémon? The legendaries. And who has the legendaries?"

"Oh." Suddenly it all clicks into place. "Oh no. Silver, no. But – what about you? And Eusine? Has he kidnapped Eusine?"

"No. Not this morning, at least, he hadn't. Just you and Lyra. You and Lyra are the only ones with reputations." Silver snorts. "You really think my father thinks I'm a good enough trainer to capture a legendary Pokémon? He doesn't think I'm fit to lick his boots."

"You're a better man than your father ever was," Leaf whispers, because it's true, and because right now Silver looks like he needs to hear it. Silver's eyes flicker up to hers, and for half a second Leaf sees what Lyra must see. Then footsteps echo from around the corner. His eyes widen.

"Silver! Get me out of here!"

"I'm sorry," he breathes, stepping away. "I need to find Lyra."

"I can help you!"

"I'm here for Lyra," he repeats. "We'll come back, once I've found her and gotten her free."

Fear and anger pound through Leaf's veins, but Silver's words stick. Powerful Pokémon. Giovanni wants powerful Pokémon. "Don't let Giovanni get Mewtwo," she hisses. "Whatever you do, don't let him get Mewtwo!"

Silver is already gone, and she presses back into the wall farthest from the door, holding her blanket up with one hand and gripping her makeshift dagger behind her back with the other.

Sure enough, the door unlocks, and in strides a Rocket Grunt. He's a young man, the same age as the Grunts from back in the day, which means Team Rocket has been recruiting. The familiarity is wrenching. Almost a decade, and the baggy black uniforms haven't changed. The face may be one she hasn't seen before, but the expression is far from new. He's uneasy, and determined, and a coward, but unfortunately his cowardice doesn't work in her favor, because he's more afraid of Giovanni than he'll ever be of her.

Two things, however, have changed. One: Leaf has no Pokémon now to defend her. Two: She's not eleven years old anymore.

"Come on, darlin'," the Grunt says, edging forward. When he gets close enough, she lashes forward with the bucket shard and slashes him across the face. He swears and slaps at her, but she dodges, and then he turns and runs. Leaf allows herself a small, grim smile.

The smile doesn't last long. The Grunt returns, this time with three of his comrades in tow, and Leaf gets one of them across the arm but it doesn't do much good except to get blood on her blanket. The blanket falls when the Grunts grab her arms, and Leaf squeals, but mercifully one of them fumbles for it and ties it back around her. "Sorry," he mumbles, and Leaf almost feels bad for him. She always felt bad for the Grunts. They were so weak.

One of them ties a blindfold around her and throws her over his shoulder, and she's carried down numerous hallways and around corners. She can't get free, no matter how she struggles. She tries to keep track of the twists and turns, but it's hopeless. It's not like it matters, since she doesn't know where she started out anyway.

At last she's plopped into a chair and someone hurriedly ties her hands behind her back. Someone else rips the blindfold off. Across the room, his face half in shadow, sits Giovanni.

And – well. The Grunts might be the same, but Giovanni has changed. Leaf blurts out the words before she can stop herself. "You got _old_."

Giovanni visibly flinches. "Ah, yes. Eleven-year-old Leaf."

Leaf doesn't even rise to the bait. She's frankly astonished. Giovanni's suit is sagging about the shoulders, his frame noticeably less massive than she remembers. And the shadows only deepen the lines of his face. "Where have you been since Tohjo Falls?"

"I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." It's not a funny joke.

"All right, then. To what do I owe the warm welcome?"

"Haven't you figured it out yet?"

"You're worse than your son," Leaf snaps before she realizes it. Thankfully, Giovanni seems to think she's speaking generally, not referring to an incident from ten minutes ago. "Spit it out, Giovanni, so I can ruin your plans like last time and get on with my day."

Giovanni sighs and waves a hand. "Someone get the girl some proper clothes. This is offending my sensibilities." While someone jams an oversized Rocket Grunt jumper over her head, Giovanni continues, "My goals haven't changed much since the last time we spoke."

"Spoke? I beat the shit out of you."

"Charming as always, child. Well, the Master Ball is lost to me, but the Pokémon it can capture are, luckily, not. You have four of them; your little friend Lyra has the other five."

He thinks Lyra has Suicune and Lugia, then. "And you've kidnapped her too, I suppose."

"Of course. You know me, Leaf. I'm thorough with my plans." Not thorough enough, apparently, but at least he hasn't cottoned on to the fact that his kid is sneaking around the building. "You needn't worry. If you cooperate, you'll be out of here in the next twenty minutes."

"What do you want from me?" Leaf grits out. She needs to stall. If she can just postpone what Giovanni is inevitably asking of her, she can maybe give Silver time to find Lyra, and both of them time to find her.

"I want you to open your PC and give me Zapdos, Moltres, Articuno, and Mewtwo," Giovanni says easily.

"And then what? You'll wreak havoc on the weather? Evil, evil."

Giovanni is unfazed. "I know what I'm doing."

And the horrible part is, Leaf thinks he probably does.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **Updates are going to slow down, because the semester's started. I'll try to update every week. Thanks so much for all your kind comments, and I hope you stick around for the rest of the ride!

* * *

One of the Grunts releases a Raticate, who promptly jumps up to sit on her head. It would probably be cute if it weren't so menacing, and if Raticate didn't have a tendency to drool around their fangs.

"Try anything funny and it'll rip your throat out," Giovanni says cheerfully, and as if on cue, four more Raticate are let out of their Pokéballs. Leaf swallows. One Raticate she can handle, but she was attacked by a swarm of Rattata once and nearly lost her fingers. Someone cuts the bonds around her wrists, and she sticks her hands through the sleeves of the Team Rocket jumper and shuffles over to the PC in the corner of the room.

PCs these days have pretty extensive security features, considering the burgeoning number of powerful trainers. Hacking the system would probably require more time and effort than a kidnapping. Leaf takes a deep breath, leans in for the retinal scan, types in her password, and mumbles a nonsense syllable for the vocal check.

The PC unlocks.

Giovanni gives a small, satisfied hiss. Leaf sighs. She taps through the pages and pages of Pokémon she's caught before finally locating the ones she wants. But then:

"I can't withdraw it."

"What do you mean, you can't withdraw it?"

"I _mean_, I already have six Pokémon out of the PC." She tries to remind herself she's just stalling; this is a dangerous game. "It's not my fault they're all back at my apartment. The computer doesn't know that. It won't let you withdraw more than six Pokémon at a time, remember? Or has it really been that long since you were a trainer? Getting senile, old man?"

Giovanni growls. "We'll trade. I've got plenty of Rattata, they're worthless."

"You sound like Blue," Leaf mumbles, but she has to change that train of thought quick. She's not going there now, not in front of Giovanni, not when she still isn't wearing pants. "I don't see a trade machine."

"Log out of the PC."

"Given up, have you?" she smirks as she logs out.

She immediately regrets it. Giovanni snatches her up by the hair and drags her into the hallway. Leaf screams. She can't help it. "Let me go! Let me go!"

"You stupid girl," he snarls. "How long do you think I've been holed up here?"

"I don't know!"

"A few days? A week?"

"A week, fine!" She digs her fingernails into his hand, to absolutely no effect. Her scalp is being ripped off, it must be. The crown of her head is on fire.

"_Years_, little girl. Years. And rest assured, I have thought of everything. PCs, trade machines, generators, healing stations, escape tunnels. So quit mouthing off and _cooperate_." He drags her up a flight of stairs and hurls her into a room with two PCs and, yes, a trade machine. Leaf rubs her scalp, curling into the wall, and refuses to cry. Tears prick at the corners of her eyes, but she wipes them quickly on her jumper when Giovanni turns to activate the trade machine. A couple of Grunts scurry in to do their master's bidding. Leaf glares at them.

Giovanni logs into one of the PCs and beckons her over. Leaf takes a deep breath and logs into the other one. She pages through the PC screens and thinks. Strategy. She remembers something Silver once told her, sneeringly: Sometimes you need to make sacrifices in order to win.

She hates to take advice from Silver, but he does think like his father.

"I caught the legendary birds nine years ago," she mumbles, uploading Zapdos to the trade machine. "You don't know what it's like, you coward."

"I'm quite an able trainer, in case you've forgotten. I'd be more than happy to remind you."

"I don't mean that. You're a good trainer – in a horrible, brutal sort of way – but you know nothing about adventure. You don't know what it's like to stand in the Power Plant, surrounded by thunder and lightning, and watch a legendary Pokémon unfurl its wings. You don't know what it's like to risk your life for the things you want. You just hide behind your big, scary ground Pokémon and your Grunts. You're worthless."

Giovanni smiles thinly. "As I said before: charming."

Leaf's fists clench and unclench repeatedly. She's got nothing to do with it; it's like her body's got a will of its own. Her teeth grind. "So what are you doing, then? If you just wanted the legendaries, why did you bother to email the Silph President?"

"My connections have been keeping me informed. I knew you kept in touch with the President and that you were friends with Lyra. I thought perhaps if he were threatened, you and she would rush to his aid."

"I stayed there all day. You never came."

"I needed you both. If I'd revealed myself and captured you, she might have gone into hiding. It would have been very inconvenient."

"We wouldn't want that."

The trade machine pings. Leaf sucks in a breath – there's Rattata, instead of Zapdos – and even though she knew it would happen, it's still a blow. Zapdos is gone. The months she spent hunting it, gone. Giovanni must see Zapdos arrive on his PC screen, because his face splits into a grin, and it's the scariest thing Leaf's seen in a long time. "Well, well. So you can behave yourself. I'm impressed. Next?"

Leaf doesn't move for a few seconds. Then she taps at the screen and uploads Moltres to the trade machine. "What are you going to do with all these legendary Pokémon, then? Hoard them?"

"As you have? Nonsense, Leaf. Power is meaningless if you don't use it."

"Use it for what?"

Giovanni hums thoughtfully. "I don't think I'll tell you."

"Does it have something to do with your 'connections'?"

"Such scorn. Yes, it does."

_Ping_. Another Rattata. Leaf is starting to feel sick. She'd hoped Lyra and Silver would have come for her by now. Maybe Silver's been found... but no, someone would have come and told Giovanni. Maybe they left without bothering to save her. Lyra would never do that, but Silver would. He'd hate himself, but he would do it.

Slowly, Leaf pages through the PC, rethinking her plan. Stalling hasn't done her any good. She'll lose all four of her legendary Pokémon this way. She sits for a moment, staring at Articuno's icon. "Articuno was the hardest to find," she murmurs. "And it was so cold in there. So cold. I probably would've died if it hadn't been for Charizard."

"That's what you get for refusing to dress properly," Giovanni deadpans. He doesn't rush her, though, apparently content to let her have her moment, confident in the knowledge that he's already won.

Then there's a loud keening sound from far away, like a generator gathering power. Leaf frowns and cocks her head. Giovanni is frowning, too. The sound is familiar, almost _alive_ – definitely not an actual machine – but she can't place it –

"Move!" Giovanni shouts suddenly. "Articuno and Mewtwo! Trade them, _now_!" He leaps up and grabs a fistful of her hair, and Leaf squeaks and hits the button quickly to trade Articuno. It doesn't stop Giovanni from wrenching at her hair, but even as she screams she recognizes the keening sound. Someone's using Hyper Beam.

Then she hears the explosion. The entire building shakes. Another keening, louder and closer. Giovanni has already sent the Grunts into the hallway, and he releases his Kangaskhan as he runs back to his own PC. Kangaskhan snorts and paws at the ground, eyeing Leaf suspiciously. Leaf swallows. She really, really misses her Pokémon.

Giovanni glances at the PC when the trade machine pings. "Now Mewtwo," he growls, typing a Pokémon to trade. "Come on! Come on!" The explosions are getting closer, and now they're accompanied by screams from Rocket Grunts. Several pairs of feet run past the open door. The person blazing through the building isn't far away.

Leaf flips back to the first page of her PC and trades Giovanni her Weedle.

Giovanni relaxes visibly as soon as the trade machine starts thrumming. He returns his attention to the door, and Leaf takes advantage of the opportunity to log out of the PC. She tries to edge around Kangaskhan, to get closer to the door, but Kangaskhan isn't having any of it. The Kangaskhan stomps in front of Leaf, roaring viciously, the baby in her pouch slashing at Leaf's face –

– and she's slammed out of the way by Dragon Rush, and Leaf is gathered up in a long dark cloak and whisked atop a Dragonite and together the three of them barrel back into the hallway and zoom up endless flights of stairs and burst onto the roof of the Rocket hideout, straight into the sunshine.


	8. Chapter 8

Leaf swallows shakily. "Hi, Lance."

"I'm going to murder Giovanni," Lance says, with a completely straight face. Leaf has never seen him so angry. "I'm going to kill him."

"You can't kill him. You'll get arrested."

"I'll hide the evidence. Are you all right?" He shifts so that she's more comfortable and very politely does not ask why she's wearing a Team Rocket jumper and no pants. Instead he takes his cape off and wraps it tenderly around her. Leaf wants to cry. She does wish she were interested in Lance, she really does. He's such a good friend.

"I'm fine. I kind of just. Thanks so much, Lance, I really can't thank you enough. How did you –"

"Your Charizard. That's one heck of a Pokémon you've got, Leaf. He showed up in Blackthorn this morning and started playing charades. When I figured out you'd gone missing, I called everyone I could think of. Lyra didn't pick up. Morty said she'd gone missing too. Blue said he'd spent the night in Pallet Town and wasn't your babysitter – I don't know why you bother with him, really – and none of the gym leaders knew a thing except for Silver."

"How did Silver know?"

"He figured it out when I called. He knows Giovanni well, and if you and Lyra had both disappeared... well, there's only one thing you both have in common, you know?"

"That we're both Pokémon Champions? That we're both girls?"

"No, Leaf. There are lots of Pokémon Champions. Me, for instance. But you two are the only trainers famous for catching legendaries."

"Silver's got Lugia."

"Yeah, and literally no one believes it. Two-thirds of the Johto population think that's an unfounded rumor."

"How did you know I was in Saffron?"

"Well, I don't know how Silver figured it out. He hung up on me as soon as he realized Lyra had been kidnapped. But I figured Giovanni would want to stay close to Silph Co., so I flew to Saffron and started scouting it out." Leaf can hear the smile in Lance's voice. "The Rocket Grunts never learned not to parade about in their uniforms. They were keeping watch outside the hideout. So I came in and got you."

"Thanks." Leaf can't think of anything else to say. "Thanks."

"No problem." He rubs her back. "You want to go back to your apartment? Charizard will be happy to see you."

He deposits her at her doorstep like a perfect gentleman. Leaf wants to invite him in, wishes she wanted him to come in, but she's exhausted and she desperately wants to be alone. She's almost relieved Blue's probably still in Pallet Town.

He's still in Pallet Town, even though he knew she was missing.

Leaf is going to kill him.

She hugs Lance, thanks him profusely, and promises to call him tonight or tomorrow when she's feeling better. Then she shuts the door in his face.

Jolteon leaps on her, literally knocking her to the ground, licking her face. Leaf laughs in spite of herself. "Hey. Hey! Did you miss me?" She shoves her off, scratching at her white ruff. "Where's Charizard? Where is everyone?"

Jolteon whines and noses at a scrap of fabric on the floor. It's Leaf's bag, which has been ripped to pieces, and her six Pokéballs are scattered all around the living room. Leaf sighs. Clearly Charizard had grown impatient or more likely sensed something was wrong. Charizard's intuition has always been too strong for his own good. He'd come out of his Pokéball and ripped the bag in the process, found her missing, and released the other Pokémon to search for her. "Are you keeping watch, then? Will he be back?"

Jolteon nods and waits as she gathers up the Pokéballs. Then, sticking close to her and nuzzling her leg constantly, she leads her outside to find her other Pokémon. Gyarados is downriver, but it only takes him ten minutes to swim up and coil around her in delight, dragging a veritable tidal wave onto the shore. Vileplume is keeping watch at Goldenrod's main gate. Gengar materializes while Vileplume is delightedly rubbing his petals on her and getting pollen all over her skirt. She, apparently, has been ghosting all about, checking the world's dark corners for news of Leaf's whereabouts, and now she vanishes to track down Charizard and Aerodactyl, who have both been scouting the skies for her.

When Charizard appears, he barrels into her, literally knocking her back ten feet, scooping her up in his spindly little Pokémon arms and rolling to take the fall. "I'm fine," she tries to say, "I'm fine," but then her voice is muffled in his hide and, much to her dismay, she's burst into tears. "I'm fine."

The rest of her Pokémon go into their Pokéballs without a sound, and Charizard carries her back to the apartment.

* * *

The next day, once she's put herself back together, more or less, she goes out for brunch with Lance, Morty, Eusine, Lyra, and Silver. Charizard won't let her out of his sight, but he nods a bit when he sees the table full of powerful trainers and agrees to wait for her outside. His face appears in the window. Lyra waves at him and turns to her friends. The instant she sees Silver's black eye and Lyra's puffy red face, she knows.

"Please tell me I'm wrong."

"He got them," Lyra chokes out. "He got all of them."

Leaf pulls out a chair and plops into it, running a hand over her face. "How?"

"How else?" Silver says, dead-voiced. "I didn't get to Lyra in time, and then we both got caught."

"But Lance –"

"Lance didn't do anything to Giovanni. He didn't do anything to the trade machine, either. And after you escaped, Giovanni was in a hurry. He caught us both, found out that Lyra only had three of the Johto legendaries, and tortured her in front of me until I told him where the other two were. So he got Lugia from me, too, obviously."

"Tortured? Like –"

"Don't make her talk about it," Silver says warningly. Leaf changes the subject fast, but resolves to find out from someone later. Tortured. Arceus.

"And Suicune?"

"I still have Suicune," Eusine interrupts. His usually light voice is subdued. "That's why I was invited to this meeting of champions."

"I'm not a Champion," Morty says.

"I didn't mean you, dear. You're quite average."

"And then what? He just... let you go?" Leaf can't believe it. Silver rasps,

"My dad's not a murderer. Yet. He's just a terrible person. Yeah, he let us go."

"And moved," Lyra adds. Her voice is quieter than usual, less shrill. Even though she's sitting in her own chair, Leaf gets the impression that she's hiding behind Silver. She wonders how Morty feels about that. "They were already packing up when we were escorted out."

"Moved where?"

"No idea."

"We don't know what to do," Lance says. "Our current plan is to track him, but there are only a few of us. Morty and Silver can get the other Leaders on our side..."

"Mostly Morty," Silver admits. "I'm not very popular."

"I wonder why," Eusine remarks, without any trace of sarcasm. He appears to be admiring Silver's hair.

"...but even then, our chances aren't good. Giovanni has what he wants, except for Suicune, and Suicune alone won't do much good, especially not if Giovanni has" – Lance hesitates – "Mewtwo."

"He doesn't have Mewtwo."

Everyone at the table perks up. "What?"

"He doesn't have Mewtwo. I tricked him." Leaf manages a small smile, directed at Silver. "Sacrifices, you know."

The revelation is like a sunbeam through fog. "But, Leaf, that means he'll still be after you."

"Me and Eusine," Leaf agrees. "But he'll do something different this time. He won't try to kidnap us again. At least, he won't kidnap me again, because I'll see it coming from a mile away and I'll kill him if he tries."

Lance and Lyra both cock their heads at that. Leaf realizes a second too late how harsh she sounded, but she couldn't help it. She's still so angry. Giovanni kidnapped her, humiliated her, and then stole her legendary birds. She's entitled to be angry.

Despondently, Eusine sighs, "I'm not a very good trainer. Not as good as you or Giovanni, anyway."

"You can stick with me," Morty suggests, squeezing his hand. "I won't let anything bad happen to you."

Lance says, "That means Giovanni and the rest of Team Rocket will still be hovering around Kanto and Johto somewhere. We ought to search the Saffron hideout for clues."

"It won't do any good," Silver shrugs, "you know how well Team Rocket always cleans up their hideouts, but fine. I'll go today."

"I'll go with you."

Silver glances sharply at Lance. "You're not in charge here, Dragon Master."

"I never said I was. But two pairs of eyes are better than one."

Hastily, Lyra interrupts, "I'll stay in Ecruteak. If no one minds. I'll help keep an eye on Eusine, and I don't... really... want to go back to Saffron."

Leaf looks at Silver's black eye, and everyone nods. "I'm going home too," she announces.

"Well, not so fast. Let's have brunch first, shall we?"

They nod and drop the topic and reach for their drinks, and that's when the inevitable happens. "So where's Blue?"

Leaf doesn't say anything. Lance and Silver had both suggested she invite Blue to brunch. Unpleasantness aside, he's a very able trainer – nearly as good as Leaf and Lyra, and even better than Silver and Lance.

"I didn't call him."

"Why not?" Lyra asks before Morty can clap a hand over her mouth.

Choosing her words carefully, Leaf replies, "I'm angry with him." When no one says anything for too long, she fills the silence with, "Do we really need to talk about this? I think Team Rocket is more important."

"We've already discussed Team Rocket," Silver says acidly. "Why are you angry with Blue?"

"None of your business. It's roommate stuff."

"I bet it is." Lance sounds almost bitter.

"Shut _up_. Not like that." Exactly like that.

"What are you going to do about it?"

"About Blue? Thrash him in a battle, probably." The idea enters Leaf's brain at the same moment it leaves her mouth. "Thrash him hard. Make it hurt."

It's Eusine, surprising everyone, who advises her lightly, "Be careful."

"Careful with what?"

He reaches for the bread basket. "Well, I'm the only one here who's not a real trainer..."

"So you're the only one who doesn't know what he's talking about. I'm not taking advice from you."

Lance and Lyra both look at her sharply, but Eusine seems unfazed. He's so weird, he probably gets comments like that all the time. "So I can look at your strategies objectively."

"I have no strategy."

"It's true," Lance says affectionately.

"Yes you do. You use brute force and type advantage. You trust your Pokémon, but you trust yourself even more. So I'm just saying, remember why you trust your Pokémon. And maybe pay more attention to that, hm?"

Leaf bristles. "I'm _famous_ for trusting my Pokémon."

"You were famous for it when you were Champion. But you're not twelve years old anymore. Don't get mad, I'm just saying."

"Eusine is really good at reading Pokémon," Morty puts in. Everyone is watching Leaf anxiously. "If he's suggesting it, it's probably a good idea. Not that I, you know, have an opinion."

"This conversation is ridiculous. Are we done here? We're screwed as far as Team Rocket is concerned, correct? All right, good talk, I'm leaving." Leaf shoves her chair back and throws some money on the table, even though their food hasn't arrived yet. "I need to go buy a new bag, anyway."

No one stops her.


	9. Chapter 9

Charizard can tell something's up. He probably picked up on it before she even came out of the restaurant. He's been treating her like glass since she got back from the Rocket hideout, but now she's more like a furnace. "We're going to Pallet."

_Why?_

"Because I'm going to challenge Blue and beat him hard, that's why."

Charizard stomps in front of her, blocking the path.

"Hey! What's wrong with you? We battle Blue all the time!"

Charizard makes a withering face, because that's not actually true. Before he moved in, Leaf only saw Blue maybe once a month, although they battled nearly every time they saw each other (and also kicked, bit, scratched, etc.). Leaf tries to stare Charizard down, but she knows she's lying. She hates lying. She prefers to stride into rooms and tell everyone exactly what she thinks. But now she just sighs and rubs a hand over her face. "I don't want to talk about it."

Charizard huffs. He's been her best friend since she was eleven years old. He knows she's not usually like this, that she's never pursued violence for the sake of violence. And he's not going to let her take another step forward until he knows what's going on.

"Charizard, haven't you wondered why Blue hasn't come home?"

Surprised, Charizard sniffs and lowers his head a bit.

Leaf lowers her voice, afraid that if she doesn't she'll cry. "He... he hurt my feelings."

Charizard lowers his head even further, so that it's level with hers, and presses his snout against her nose, searching out her eyes. He stares at her for a moment. His eyes narrow. Then he nods, wary but accepting, and steps aside. She forces her tears into the backs of her eyeballs and marches forward to Goldenrod and the Magnet Train.

Not once does she have second thoughts about what she's about to do. Not once.

* * *

She takes the Magnet Train to Saffron and flies to Pallet Town. Aerodactyl can sense how tense she is, and at first he doesn't want to take her to Pallet, but he always does what he's told. Her blood is pounding with adrenaline – she knows she's going to win this fight, but she also knows it's going to be nasty – and it's all she can do not to pound on the Oaks' front door. Still, she controls herself and knocks politely. She knows Daisy or the Professor will probably open it, and she doesn't want anyone to see how upset she is.

Sure enough, Daisy answers. "Leaf!"

"Hi, Daisy. Is Blue here?"

"Yep, he's upstairs. I'll call him!"

"No – that's okay, I'll just go up."

Daisy doesn't care. She pads back into the the living room, and Charizard follows her, giving Leaf a bit of space and clearly hoping for a grooming. Blastoise is lounging in the corner of the living room. He lifts his head when Leaf comes in and stares at her, clearly astonished. "Is your power back on?"

"What?"

"Blue told us about your power being out. That's why he's been staying here, he said. Are you okay? Where have you been staying?"

"Oh – yeah. No, it's not back yet. But they're hoping it'll be back up this afternoon."

"That's good." Daisy begins scratching Charizard under the chin, and Leaf goes up to Blue's room, conscious of Blastoise's eyes on her until she's out of sight. She knocks gently, controlling herself.

Blue opens the door and immediately tries to shut it again. Fuck self-control. Leaf was never any good at it anyway. She shoves the door in.

"What do you want?"

"Really, Blue? That's all you have to say? How about, Where've you been, Leaf? How about, Lance called a couple of days ago saying you'd gone missing, Leaf?"

"I knew where you were," Blue snaps. "Silver called me when he figured out Team Rocket was back."

Leaf's lungs immediately stop working. "He what?"

"He called me." Blue is mumbling now. "Said you were in Saffron somewhere."

"You _knew_?"

"Yeah... So what? You're fine, aren't you?"

"Are you serious? _You left me to the mercy of Team Rocket_?" If Leaf was angry before, it's nothing to how she feels now. She's livid. Her insides have all drained out, leaving a dark empty pocket of air inside her skin. She doesn't know if she wants to claw Blue's throat out or sob for days.

"What else was I supposed to do?" Blue demands, wild-eyed. "They kidnapped you! How could I possibly have helped? You're a better trainer than me!"

He's never, ever said that before, but Leaf isn't in the mood to stop and rub it in his face. "So you didn't come for me because you were scared?" There's a tiny part of her that can't help but doubt what he's just said. Fear is entirely unlike Blue. She's never seen him be afraid of anything, except maybe her, right now. "You coward."

"You're mad that I didn't directly confront Team Rocket? You're insane! They weren't going to hurt you! Giovanni just wants Pokémon! Look at you, you're fine!"

"Silver came for Lyra!"

"Silver has Lugia! I don't have any legendary Pokémon, because back when there were legendary Pokémon in Kanto, you got to all of them first, you greedy –!"

"Don't you _dare_ turn this on me! You know who saved me in the end? Lance! Lance doesn't have any legendaries either!"

"He has like eight Dragonite! And of course he came for you, everyone knows you two are fucking."

Leaf snaps. "I've never had sex with Lance! I tried to have sex with _you_! And you _ditched me_!"

Blue won't meet her eyes, but he doesn't lower his voice either. "Maybe I don't want to have sex with someone who has to be drunk before she can hook up with me!"

"You were drunk _first_!"

"I'm used to drinking! It's different for me!"

"How is being a fucking alcoholic _different_? How does making a shit choice over and over again, instead of just once, make it _different_?"

Screw Pokémon battles. Leaf wants to kill him. He opens and closes his mouth for a minute, like a Magikarp, and then he just repeats the first thing he'd said, his voice low and nasty. "What do you want."

Leaf takes a deep breath. "We're going to have a Pokémon battle."

"I don't want to battle."

"We're going to have a Pokémon battle, in five minutes, behind your house, and if you refuse, I will have Gengar follow you around and use Nightmare every time you sleep."

Blue blinks at her, wide-eyed, his face curling. Leaf backs out of the room and goes back downstairs. Charizard is on the floor, having his belly rubbed by Daisy, but he pops up when he sees her and follows her outside, looking anxious and annoyed. Blastoise is standing now, but he doesn't follow them, instead looking up the stairs for his master. Leaf lets the front door slam.

"He'll come out." Leaf plants her feet in their usual battle patch and rolls Jolteon's Pokéball between her fingers. Blue always starts with Blastoise. He's so predictable.

Charizard makes a noise in his throat.

"Yes. I want to battle." But somehow she's not as sure as she was ten minutes ago. She hates the way Blue does this – worms under her skin and mucks everything up. Blue arrives, Blastoise at his side. Leaf cracks a grin but she lets it fall quickly, aware of how frightening it must look. "Shall we?"

"Fine."

She sends out Jolteon, and he sends out – Rhydon.

Leaf starts. There's no way Jolteon can take on Rhydon. She withdraws her and sends out Gyarados instead, and Blue promptly withdraws Rhydon and sends out Exeggutor. Leaf glances at him sharply, but he's not smiling. She chews her lip. He really doesn't want to battle. This has never happened before; Blue's always up for a chance to prove his strength.

Charizard starts edging around the battlefield. Leaf grabs onto the edge of his wing, snaps, "Stop trying to have a girl talk with Blastoise," and, before she can change her mind, orders Gyarados to use Thrash.

The battle begins.

Gyarados loses to Exeggutor, but then Leaf's Gengar takes Exeggutor out. Arcanine defeats Gengar. Aerodactyl defeats Arcanine. The whole time Charizard and Blastoise are growing increasingly more agitated, and Leaf won't admit that maybe she didn't have to push Aerodactyl quite so hard, because Arcanine was having trouble breathing by the end, and Blue's got this queer hard look on his face. Leaf's seen that look before. That's the look he wore when he shoved her and Professor Oak out of the way outside Indigo Plateau. She'd just won the Championship, and Professor Oak had chastised him for his inability to love his Pokémon. He loves his Pokémon now, though, Leaf knows he does. Something else is making him look that way.

Right now Aerodactyl is the only one on the field. He's soaring in a gentle circle, quivering a bit with exertion. Leaf takes a couple of deep breaths, and Blue sends out his Alakazam. Soon Aerodactyl comes crashing to the ground. Leaf sends out Jolteon. When Alakazam faints, Blue sends out Rhydon. Jolteon doesn't last a minute, but Rhydon barely lasts thirty seconds against Vileplume. Blue sends out his Pidgeot, who defeats Vileplume without breaking a sweat. Pidgeot's feathers are ruffled, though. The Pokémon are unhappy. Leaf shoves this thought from her mind. The battle's nearly over; she can't stop now.

Charizard is her only Pokémon left. He trudges, reluctantly, onto the field. Leaf shouts at him to use Flamethrower, but he doesn't. He just flies into the air and grabs Pidgeot and holds on tightly until Pidgeot stops struggling. Then Charizard lays Pidgeot gently on the ground, and Pidgeot, clearly relatively uninjured, rolls his eyes up to look at Charizard. But he doesn't fight back. Blue calls Pidgeot back and sends out Blastoise.

"That doesn't count," Leaf yells. "Pidgeot can still fight!"

"He wasn't moving," Blue says tightly. "We'll count him as defeated. All right? We've both got one Pokémon left."

Leaf grits her teeth. "Fine." She can't lose. Not after she challenged Blue, not after he deserted her twice. Charizard's faster than Blastoise, but Blastoise has better defense and a serious type advantage. It doesn't help that neither of the Pokémon really want to fight. Leaf's never been in a battle where her Pokémon were so reluctant. It's almost over, though, and then Blue will be sorry. Sorry and hurt and ashamed, all the things she wants him to be, all the things she's been for the past two days. She closes her eyes.

The battle drags out. The Pokémon circle each other for a while, lashing out halfheartedly, neither willing to make the first move. Leaf presses her fists into her mouth, refusing to give orders. Charizard's already disobeyed her once.

At last it's Blue who screams, "Hydro Pump!"

That's it. Charizard zooms out of the way and slams shoulder-first into Blastoise, both of them skidding along the grass, and then Charizard flies up in the air and uses Flamethrower until Blastoise, thrashing, stuck on his back and unable to get up, is nearly boiling in his shell and screaming so loud he sounds human. Blue is screaming too.

"That's enough!" Leaf shrieks. "That's enough!"

Charizard stops immediately. Blue runs to Blastoise but his shell is too hot to touch, and Blue can't put him back in the Pokéball until he's cooled off. Together the three of them watch Blastoise suffer. Leaf's bones are cold, her eyes are cold, her skin is cold. Everything has gone horribly wrong. Blue on the couch, Team Rocket, and now this. Leaf presses her palms into her eye sockets.

Eventually, when Blastoise is still prone and panting, Blue calls him back into his Pokéball and trudges back to his house without looking at her.

And that's that.

Leaf, trembling, reaches out to hug Charizard, but he goes into his Pokéball of his own accord.


	10. Chapter 10

Leaf lets her Pokémon rest at her mother's house, endures the petty small-talk from her mother, and then returns to Goldenrod. She doesn't see Blue again before she leaves. Even worse, Charizard won't come out of his Pokéball. She wants to throw up.

Back in Goldenrod, she manages to spend the first hour by herself, leaving her Pokéballs on her bedroom dresser and sitting quietly on the couch with a cup of tea.

The second hour she shouts at Charizard to come out, but he refuses.

The third hour she spends with Gengar and Jolteon and Vileplume, who are all small enough to fit inside her apartment. They're not angry at her, although they're still a little weak from the battle and confused as to what brought it on. They're good Pokémon, but they're not what she wants right now, and they only remind her of Charizard's anger and of her own fury. She sends them back into their Pokéballs, and they go peacefully.

The fourth hour, she curls up on her bed and stares alternately at Charizard's Pokéball and at the wall behind it, thinking of Blue; and at the beginning of the fifth hour, she rolls over and whispers to the empty air, "Please come out, Charizard."

She can practically hear him sigh. Charizard comes out. He clomps over to the bed and prods her with one fat claw, sullenly. She lets him.

"I don't know what to do," she whispers. "I _always_ know what to do."

_Do you feel better?_

"Do I look like I feel better? I feel so much worse! I didn't... I didn't know. Ugh, and Blastoise was the worst of all. Do you think he's all right?"

Charizard nods, slowly. He probably wouldn't have pushed the battle to the point where Blastoise wouldn't have been all right. He just wanted to force her to call the whole thing off.

"It wasn't my fault," Leaf whimpers. But Charizard just scowls at her, and Leaf amends, "It wasn't _all_ my fault." She watches as Charizard thinks about it and concedes the point. "I'm just – I don't know. I'm used to being a trainer, you know? Battles are supposed to be how I fix things. But I just made everything worse. What do I do?"

Charizard doesn't give her an answer. She already knows what the answer is. She curls up on herself, feeling sick. None of this would ever have happened if she hadn't invited Blue to live with her. "Do... do I have to go now?"

She expects Charizard to nod, but instead he shakes his head. He'll give her that, at least. She smiles at him, shakily, and doesn't cry at all.

* * *

Then, of course, Blue has to go and ruin everything by showing up on her doorstep.

"I was going to apologize," Leaf says as soon as she opens the door. He's standing there in his stupid cargo pants and his stupid sneakers and his stupid sexy black jacket with his stupid spiky hair and his stupid, stupid beautiful neck. "I was going to come over tomorrow morning and apologize. Couldn't you be patient?"

Blue looks startled. "What?"

"Yeah, yeah, don't get all excited and rub it in my face. I'm sorry, okay?" Leaf takes off her hat and pulls at her hair. She hates everything. Behind her, Charizard shuffles into her bedroom, and she hears the laser sound of his Pokéball. "I'm sorry."

"Oh, good. Sorry for what?"

She nearly throws her hat at him. "What do you mean sorry for what! Sorry for nearly murdering your Pokémon! Arceus."

He scoffs. "No need to swear."

"Oh please. You taught me to swear."

A smile glimmers on his face. "Oh yeah. That time you scraped your knee."

"Because you pushed me." They'd been five years old. He'd helped her up again afterwards.

"Yeah, whatever, you probably deserved it. And anyway, don't flatter yourself. You think you could really hurt my Pokémon? Nice try, Leaf."

Leaf opens her mouth and closes it again. Should she point out to him that Blastoise was screaming by the end? Also that Charizard literally disobeyed her because she was so merciless? Also that his Arcanine had been unable to breathe? If she keeps her mouth shut, she loses the argument; if she speaks, she reminds him she's a monster.

She decides to lose the argument. She's never done that before and she finds she doesn't like it much, so she changes the subject. "What do you want, then?" Stepping aside to let him in, she realizes he's going to ask if he can move back in. She panics. What should she say? Does she want him to come back? He paid rent last month so she can't even really say no, can she?

"I came to say _I'm_ sorry," he says.

"Huh?"

"For – ugh, don't play dumb, Leaf. I know I make fun of you all the time, but you're not actually a moron." He glowers. "Don't tell people I said that or I'll deny it."

"I'm not playing! I'm the one who crushed you today because I was being a petty bitch. What are you apologizing for?"

"For... two days ago. And for Team Rocket." His voice is low. He's miserably uncomfortable. "Can I sit down?"

"It's your sofa," Leaf says automatically, and he just darts her a funny look and stiffly sits. She sits down too. They're back on the sofa, then. Back where they started.

"So," Blue begins, and he definitely looks like he's about to embark on a long monologue, and oh no what has Leaf gotten herself into, "you know I'm friends with Silver."

"No, Blue. I had no idea you were friends with Silver. Why are you friends with Silver? Silver sucks. Actually, never mind, I get why you're friends with him."

"Okay, well, in addition to sharing certain character traits that you just can't appreciate –"

"– like being assholes. Although at least Silver tried to help Lyra in the Rocket lair." Leaf winces at herself. So much for wholehearted apologies.

"Yeah, well, that's what I'm getting at, actually, so if you'd ease up on the guilt trips for a minute I could tell you. And of course Silver and I are friends. We live in neighboring towns while the rest of you are off traipsing about Johto, and I gave him control of my Gym."

"Technically you usurped his Gym, since it was his dad's."

"Gyms aren't hereditary."

"Falkner says –"

"Falkner's a classist idiot."

"I'm surprised you even know the word classist."

"The point is, I hang out with Silver sometimes, okay? We've been hanging out for, like, four or five years. And he's told me some stuff about Giovanni." Blue takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. "About what Giovanni used to do to people."

Leaf's breath catches. The silence threatens to hang. "Seems unlikely. Silver's not much one to open up, is he?"

For once, Blue doesn't bristle. He just rubs his face. "Yeah, well, it took a while."

"What... what did he say Giovanni did?" Leaf isn't sure she wants to know.

"Silver wasn't there for a lot of it. He was really little, remember – like, seven or eight when Giovanni went into hiding. But he remembers being in Rocket hideouts and seeing and hearing his father... torture people, for information or sometimes just for revenge. And it just – I think it was really horrible for him, but – I just thought, Giovanni had already captured you, and that meant you had something he wanted, and if I went in and drew attention to you and made it worse for you... well. I thought I was better off staying away, to be honest. You can take care of yourself, you know."

Leaf's heart has never beat so fast. Tentatively, instinctively, she reaches for Blue, and his hands curl around her wrists and squeeze and stay. "So you were actually trying to help me. In your ridiculous, stupid... apparently fairly thoughtful and logical way."

Blue smiles thinly. "You know how great I am at strategy."

He's still holding her wrists, and his hands are hot, and his neck and shoulders are still powerful and strong. Leaf swallows. She has to ask. She can't not ask. She's already tried to battle herself into feeling better, and if she doesn't ask, it'll eat at her until she snaps again. "Um. Before that, though. On the couch." Blue sighs; his grip loosens; Leaf babbles on before he lets go. "Look, I get it if you don't want to – do anything with me, you're no charmer either, but –"

"Cut that out," Blue says suddenly.

And just like that, they're back. Leaf bristles. "It's not just me. You're the one who –"

"No, I get it, Leaf, okay? You don't want to hook up with me, I'm just the kid you beat out of the Pokémon Championship. Whatever." He drops her like she's burned him.

"What are you talking about? I invited you to sleep with me and you left! And you're the one who got drunk and waited for me on the couch!"

"So what!"

"So just tell me why you _left_ me!"

"I already told you why! Because you didn't want to hook up with me and I wasn't going to, like, force it on you! I know I can be a jerk sometimes but I'm not evil!"

"Of course I wanted to hook up with you," Leaf spits out, breathless. "You're the one who didn't want to hook up with me."

"But – you were drunk. You had to get drunk first."

"Yeah, but – ugh, Blue, you were drunk too. I was just drunk because I was nervous. I could do it sober, I mean, probably, if you wanted to," and oh. That escalated quickly. Where did that conversation come from? And then Leaf can't panic about it anymore because Blue gets this look in his eyes like all the cogs in his head have snapped into place.

"Oh," he says, half-tripping over the words, and yanks her in and kisses her.


	11. Chapter 11

Leaf's eyes slide shut. She can't help it. She'd like to maintain some level of dignity, but she doesn't remember how. The first few minutes are horribly awkward, while they try to work around their knees and elbows, and Leaf sort of wants to be on top but Blue has apparently had enough of that shit because he pulls back long enough to crush her into the sofa and well. Okay. Oh. Oh, okay.

And then there isn't anything left but his body and his tongue, licking into her mouth, and his hands crushing her wrists against the cushions. She melts. Blue's hands leave hers, come up to curl into her jawbone, and his whole body softens. He's fully on top of her now, but Leaf doesn't think that's why she's having trouble breathing. He pulls back, just a hair, just enough for her to gather dimly that he's breathing shallowly too, and gives her a long, soft, open-mouthed kiss. Leaf's heart stutters. She's never been afraid of Blue before, but this – this is new.

Blue pauses like he's just now realized what he's doing, and she reaches up and threads her hands through his hair, nosing under his chin, pressing her lips to his throat. Blue groans. Impulsively she grazes his skin with her teeth. She's never bitten anyone before, unless you count all the times she's bitten Blue in an entirely non-sexual way, but now she wants to bite him all over. She wants to leave marks, wants to taste every inch.

"Too bright in here," Blue groans.

She does bite him then, hard, and when he hisses she mumbles into his neck, "You want to get up and turn off the light?"

"Fuck off." He arches his neck. She giggles a little, bites him again a little lower down, ignores the way her pulse is throbbing in her belly.

"Don't tell me what to do."

"This is why I pinned you down. I was supposed to – _mmph_ – be in charge."

Leaf licks his neck, curls her fingers up his back underneath his shirt, and breathes, "You will never be in charge of me."

Blue fumbles for her wrists again, but even once he's got them he can't do anything to her mouth. She keeps mouthing him through his shirt, moving ever farther down, reveling in the glory, the power, the heat and hardness of his body. He doesn't actually want her to stop, and she doesn't want to stop either. He might have made it so she can't move her hands, but she's got him right where she wants him –

"You sure?"

She pauses, her lips pressed against his sternum. She's wriggled down so that his hips are hovering just over her stomach, and her shirt's ridden up, and his erection is grazing her stomach through his pants. It's incredibly sexy. Are unbidden erections supposed to be sexy? "Huh?"

"I – uh, I was thinking – well, okay, maybe it's too early for this –"

Leaf bites his stomach. Too early for this. Does that imply they're going to do... whatever this is, again? "Spit it out."

"I thought maybe I could tie you up." His voice is barely audible. "It – you don't have to. You really don't have to. We can do whatever you want."

Leaf's throat is suddenly dry. She opens her mouth to tell him no, absolutely not, and instead says hoarsely, "I don't want you to hurt me."

Blue lifts himself up so that he's looking in her face. He's bright red, and it's clear that that's not what he expected her to say. "I would never hurt you." She gives him a look, and he amends, "Well, I wouldn't if you were going to make it so easy. That's no fun."

There's no way. There's no way she's going to give Blue that sort of power over her. She's shaking. In a flash she imagines being naked, her wrists strapped over her head, and Blue's mouth on her, his hands everywhere, his voice encouraging for once, and _oh_, she wants it, she really, really wants it. "I'd like that," she mumbles, her voice cracking into his T-shirt. "I – yeah."

Time hangs frozen for several seconds.

"Well, okay," Blue says. The words tumble out of him all in a rush. "Are – you're sure?"

"Yeah. Yeah, yes, please."

Blue shudders and swears under his breath. Leaf gasps. Hastily he gathers her up and half-carries, half-drags her into his bedroom while she wraps her legs around his waist and sinks her teeth into the flesh of his shoulder. He kicks the door shut and deposits her on the bed, and here it's dark, and she can hardly see his outline but she knows exactly where he is. He's standing in front of her. She's folded awkwardly on the bed. Now, Leaf supposes, is when they're supposed to take their clothes off, and now it's weird again. So, so weird.

Blue moves away from her. For a hideous second Leaf thinks he's going to leave again, and if he does she will literally track him down and rip his head off his shoulders. But instead she hears the closet door opening and closing, and then he's back, taking her hands carefully, nudging her up towards the headboard. There's just the faintest trace of hesitance in his movements. He is clearly freaking out.

Leaf is freaking out, too. This has to be a terrible idea. But somehow it doesn't _feel_ like a bad idea; it feels like the best idea they've ever had. Definitely a better idea than the years and years of fighting. She wants to feel like this all the time. "I'm still wearing my clothes."

"It's fine," Blue says breathlessly. He bends down to kiss her, fumbling with the tie in his hands, tying it around her wrists. "It's fine."

Her Pokégear rings. They both freeze until it goes off, and once the silence falls again it's thick and heavy. Tentatively Blue leans back in, and she leans up to greet him, and then her Pokégear rings again.

This time Blue grunts into her neck, "Who's calling you?"

"Probably just Lyra," Leaf whispers distractedly, "looking to hang out." In fact it's probably Lance, but she doesn't want to mention Lance right now. Blue pushes her shirt up, and Leaf's hands are properly bound, and she's gasping, wondering what he's about to do –

The Pokégear rings a third time. Blue gets up and goes into the living room. Abruptly the sound stops.

"Who was it?" Leaf asks when he returns, although she doesn't really care. He licks her neck and says, "Morty."

"Huh... Morty? Oh, that's – that's odd."

"Too bad."

"It might've been important. You should've let me get it." Actually Morty has never had anything important to tell Leaf, ever, but she feels it's important to maintain some semblance of control.

"Too bad you can't move," Blue whispers, and then his hands are in her clothes again and Leaf can't think about anything anymore.

* * *

An hour later, Blue unties her and falls asleep with his face pressed into the curve of her side. Leaf doesn't fall asleep right away. Her blood is still thrilling, and everything feels exhilarated and yet oddly peaceful. When she does doze off, it's with her fingers tangled in Blue's hair.

She wakes up to Blue pulling his pants on. She stretches. "No morning sex?"

Blue looks at her and his face and fingers twitch like he's about to drop his clothes and leap back into bed, but he just looks away and finishes getting dressed. "Nah. I figured I'd better get to work."

"Ooh, so responsible. Who knew."

"I've been late for the last couple of days since I was commuting from Pallet Town."

Leaf's throat tightens at how he says it. She sits up and says, a little more sharply than she intended, "Oh, yeah. Are we going to talk about how you were a dick for the last couple of days?"

"No," Blue replies, his voice tight, and leaves the room.

Leaf's blood freezes. He wouldn't. He _couldn't_. She scrambles up and covers herself with one of his massive jackets, which is the only thing lying around, but when she gets out to the living room, he's in the kitchen, banging pots around. She relaxes a bit. Maybe she can't blame him for being weird. They did just bang, after all. Her heart jumps at the pink marks on her wrists, and as she goes to turn her Pokégear on she calls to Blue, "Could've made me breakfast in bed."

"Was going to, but then you woke up and decided to be your usual sarcastic self, so."

"I wasn't sarcastic. When was I sarcastic?" Blue sticks his head out of the kitchen to answer, his face tight. Leaf doesn't want to deal with it. She holds up a finger to shut him up. "Hang on, I have a voicemail."

His face darkens. He retreats back into the kitchen. Leaf actually does have a voicemail. She flicks it to _Play_, idly examining her marked-up wrists.

It's Lyra's voice. "Leaf? _Leaf_, pick up the damn phone. Pick up the_ damn phone_."

Leaf's stomach twists; Lyra sounded upset. But she tries to stay calm. She'll just call Lyra back. "Told you it was Lyra," Leaf calls, since her Pokégear's on speaker and Blue can probably hear it too, but then –

"Leaf, I am _not kidding_! You need to answer! Giovanni got Suicune, you'll be next! Whatever you're doing, it had better be important!"

When Leaf looks up again, Blue's run out of the kitchen and is standing there holding an egg. There's another voicemail, and Leaf just stands frozen, listening. This one is from Morty: "Hey, Leaf, I don't know if Lyra already told you, she said she would, but Suicune got stolen and Eusine – Eusine, please, calm down – he's freaking out and – I know, I'm sorry – ugh, this is awful, I promised I would take care of him and – and we're just worried about you, so please pick up or call me back, bye."

One more from Lyra, which must have come after Blue shut off the Pokégear. "Fucking hell," the recording says, and clicks off.

Leaf drops the Pokégear onto her sofa and looks up at Blue. Blue looks back. At last he asks, "How long ago?"

"Seven hours, just about."

"I guess I'm not going into work today," Blue says. "I'll go turn off the stove."


	12. Chapter 12

It's amazing how quickly Blue's attitude changes, all animosity forgotten in the battle against Team Rocket. Leaf hops into her room to change into proper clothes and let Charizard out of his Pokéball, and except for the pointed way he looks her up and down, there's no indication that he knows what she did with Blue last night. Blue emerges from his room in his black jacket and cargo pants just as she's calling Lyra back. He vibrates in the corner while she deals with Lyra's tear-soaked rage. Lyra and Eusine and Morty are in Ecruteak, still. Leaf and Blue and Charizard go outside; Blue releases Pidgeot, and Leaf releases Aerodactyl, and together they soar up into the air and fly side-by-side to Ecruteak City.

But Morty's house is empty. The Gym, too, is empty. Blue scowls as he lets Blastoise out of his Pokéball, and together the four of them clump around, anxious and puzzled. "You're sure they said they were here?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"I bet they're not. They're probably at Eusine's."

"Okay, look, even if they're not here, I'm pretty sure I didn't get Ecruteak and Celadon mixed up. I'm calling Lyra... No, it's going straight to voicemail. I guess she doesn't have a signal."

Blue chews his lip. "Dragon's Den? Mt. Silver?"

"Why would they be in Mt. Silver? Suicune never... oh. I know where they are." And Leaf leads them to the Burned Tower.

Lyra spots them first and launches herself at Leaf, shrilling, "Where have you _been_?"

"I'll tell you later," Leaf hisses through clenched teeth. "What happened?"

Eusine is literally sitting on the floor in his violet waistcoat and ivory cape, sobbing. "I – I brought Suicune back – and Team Rocket – and it likes to – but I shouldn't have – I shouldn't –"

"I don't get it," Blue says loudly.

Eusine promptly shuts up to glower at Blue like he's trying to set him on fire. Leaf suppresses a smile. Morty sighs from his crouched position beside Eusine and explains,

"Eusine likes to bring Suicune here to train because it's the first place he saw Suicune. Apparently Team Rocket knew that or predicted it somehow. They were waiting here, and when Suicune was running around, they captured it the old-fashioned way: with a net. And then they flew off in one of their little hovercrafts, which they'd stored in the woods behind the Tower. So Suicune is gone, now."

"I thought that was, like, eight hours ago. Why are they still here?" Blue whispers. He sounds a little guilty. Leaf repeats what he's just said, only louder, so their companions can hear, and Lyra says petulantly,

"Eusine won't move."

"Doesn't he need to eat?"

"And go to the bathroom," Blue adds.

Lyra shrugs.

"Where are Lance and Silver?"

"Scoping out the Saffron hideout. Oh my God, do I not have a signal? I have to go see if Silver's called!" She kisses Morty and runs out. Morty rolls his eyes and rubs Eusine's back.

"So what do we do?" Leaf asks.

"We wait for updates, I guess," Morty sighs. He looks at her sternly. "Where were you last night?"

"Asleep," Leaf replies at the same time Blue says, "Her Pokégear ran out of batteries."

Everybody looks at each other. Eusine's lips press together in the early stages of a knowing smile, and Morty looks at him, startled, like maybe he won't push the issue if Eusine's cheered up. "Um," Leaf says quickly, "don't tell Lance, okay?"

Blue stiffens beside her. Immediately Leaf wishes she hadn't said it. Why did she say that? Whatever the reason is, Morty and Eusine don't seem to care. Morty just shrugs and lets his shoulders drop, and Eusine's smile widens until it's nearly full-blown. Charizard raises his head to glare at her, and even Blastoise seems mildly irritated, which is annoying because Blastoise never acknowledges her at all. Suddenly she wonders if Blastoise is upset with her over the battle. He's a Pokémon, right? He's used to it.

_That's something Blue would say_, Leaf thinks, and hates herself a little.

"Whatever," Morty says.

"_Whatever_?" Eusine splutters through his tears. "Morty, we are witnessing a _tryst_."

"There's no tryst," Blue snarls. "Nothing happened."

Now it's Leaf's turn to stiffen. If she didn't know better, she would say that Charizard and Blastoise just exchanged a look. "What he said," she says, as smoothly as she can manage. "Nothing happened. And on that note, I'm going to see if Lyra's got any updates." She saunters out with her hands in her pockets, and Charizard follows her. She isn't shaking at all. She's not.

She holds a hand in front of her face, just to make sure she isn't shaking.

She steps outside, and the sunlight blasts into her. She's shocked back to reality. Fuck Blue, really. Who needs him? She can take care of herself. She doesn't need a boyfriend or a fuck buddy or a roommate; she doesn't need anybody but Charizard, and Charizard is right here, clearly exasperated but willing to put up with her because he's already hung around for nearly a decade and there's no point in leaving now. Lyra's pacing frantically in front of the Burned Tower, clutching her phone. She blubbers, "I need to go, Silver, Leaf's here, but come to Ecruteak," and hangs up the Pokégear and starts to cry.

Leaf flinches. She has no idea what to do. She's not good with emotions. She holds her arms out and says, "Um...?"

Apparently that's enough; Lyra throws herself into Leaf's arms and bawls, "Suicune's _gone_!"

And oh. Leaf tightens her arms around Lyra. Now she understands. She remembers how ugly and wrenching it was to lose her legendary birds. Lyra must be feeling so much worse. She'd traded Suicune to Eusine, but only after hanging onto Suicune for years; and Suicune had been the first legendary she'd ever encountered, and she had chased it all over Johto and Kanto. They'd had a bond, a real bond – not like the one Leaf has with Charizard, but certainly greater than the one she had with Zapdos or Moltres or Articuno. Had. Because Zapdos and Moltres and Articuno are gone now, and Suicune is gone too.

Leaf rubs her hands over Lyra's shoulders, and Lyra flinches away. Her collar tugs down.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," Lyra says, curling in on herself. "I just – it's been a lot."

"Under your collar. What is that? Lyra!"

Reluctantly Lyra pulls her collar away. Red welts slice across her shoulders and shoulder blades and out of sight, and that's when Leaf remembers. How could she be so selfish, obsessing over Blue while Leaf was dealing with being tortured?

"It's nothing," Lyra whispers. "I don't want to talk about it."

All the guilt and hot anger at Team Rocket and Blue have been replaced with a different feeling, something as still and and cold and unsurmountable as ice. "What did Giovanni do to you?"

"I really don't want to talk about it," Lyra says, her voice cracking, and Leaf just opens her arms and pulls Lyra back in. Suddenly she feels very calm. Giovanni has hurt Lyra. Therefore Giovanni will have to pay.

A quick, almost silent flutter sounds, and Leaf glances up to see Silver's Crobat landing, with Silver clinging tightly to it. She holds back a snort. It's always funny to see Silver fly because Crobat is so small, but Silver's wearing the same look of cold determination that she imagines she must have.

Silver nods to her, curtly. Another, louder sound of wings flapping, and Lance's Dragonite lands, too. Leaf's throat tightens. "Hi, Lance. Silver. Any luck at the hideout?"

"We only got to search half the base," Lance says. Silver comes forward and takes Lyra from Leaf, and Leaf edges forward to talk to Lance. "Sabrina showed up and kicked us out."

"Why?"

"She said we were 'scaring the people of Saffron.'"

"That's ridiculous! Team Rocket was there wandering about in their uniforms! No one kicked them out!"

"Sabrina wasn't even the problem," Silver scoffs. "We could've taken Sabrina; I've got Gengar. But she brought half the Saffron police force."

"But she's just a gym leader. She doesn't have any command over the police. The only gym leader with any military authority is Lt. Surge."

"I know that," Silver says coolly. They all look at each other, except for Lyra, who is still quivering quietly, pressed against Silver's jacket. At last Leaf says, "Didn't you find _anything_ in the hideout?"

"Found these scraps of paper." Lance pulls them out of his pocket. "They look like they ought to be a map of some sort, but we haven't put them together yet."

"I'll do it." Leaf takes the papers. Silver begins leading Lyra off to Morty's house. "Um – is that it, then?"

"I guess so." Lance rubs a hand over his spiky hair and sighs. "I don't want you being alone, though, now that the only Pokémon Giovanni's missing is Mewtwo. I'll accompany you home."

"Oh – it's all right. Blue moved back in, he can make sure – yeah."

Lance takes his hand from his hair and says, "Yeah?"

"Yeah." Ugh, Leaf can't handle all these feelings. She wishes her heart would quit bouncing back and forth between guilt and anger and anxiety and just pick one. She hates having to screw Lance over. She misses Lance. She likes Lance. "But, um, come over. We haven't played chess in weeks. I've had to play Blue, and I always beat him; it's unsatisfying."

Lance eyes her levelly. "Blue won't mind?"

"Who cares if he minds? It's my apartment, not his."

"All right." And they fly off together, leaving Blue with Morty and Eusine in the basement of the Burned Tower.

Blue doesn't react at all when he comes home an hour later and finds Lance and Leaf playing chess at the kitchen table. He just starts poking about in the cabinets and mutters, "Eusine, man."

"What happened?" Lance asks. Lance is kicking her ass at chess. It's refreshing.

"We just got him out of the Burned Tower. I feel bad for the guy, but, like, forty minutes? Really?"

"More like nine hours." Lance moves a rook.

"Guess I'm lucky I never caught any legendaries. Leaf, where's the whiskey?"

"Threw it out."

"You what? I bought that!"

"I'll pay you back. Couldn't have cost more than ten bucks, considering the quality of the stuff."

"You shouldn't drink," Lance remarks. "It's bad for your liver."

Now Blue reacts. He throws Lance a scathing look and comes to lean close over Leaf's shoulder, examining the board. Leaf doesn't even twitch. She pushes her queen forward.

"Shitty move," Blue remarks and leaves. His bedroom door slams.

"I really don't get it, Leaf," Lance sighs, but at least he doesn't seem upset with her.

"Me neither," Leaf admits.

* * *

She keeps hanging out with Lance, though. It's easier, it turns out, than hanging out with Blue. It always has been easier, which is why she's been close with Lance for years and seen Blue only on the holidays.

They make plans to meet up on Friday, after Leaf's weekly date with the Silph President. The Silph President has been on edge since Giovanni's email, and the new knowledge that Giovanni was only a couple of blocks away the whole time makes him jittery and snappish.

"You don't need to worry, President. He doesn't want you. He wants me."

"And what am I supposed to do once he has you, Leaf? You're the only one strong enough to protect me!"

"If I'm strong enough to protect you, then I'm strong enough to protect myself, aren't I? So you've got nothing to worry about."

"You don't understand the gravity of the situation!"

"I understand exactly! I was kidnapped! Lyra was tortured! I know exactly what's going on, thank you very much, and if you're so worried, then maybe you ought to help me instead of yelling at me!"

The President just clams up and stares at her with wide, trembling eyes, cowering on the other side of his desk. Leaf kicks the leg of her chair. The President can't help her. No one can help her. No one even knows where to start.

She gulps at her coffee and leaves as quickly as she can. But there's a delay at the train station, and she's late meeting Lance at Olivine Café. By the time she gets there, she's agitated from her residual indignation with the President. Her quiet wrath at Giovanni hasn't dissipated, has in fact only grown since she saw the marks he left on Lyra. It's not an emotion she's used to. She's used to attacking her problems head-on, whether it's a good idea or not; she's not used to letting them simmer under her skin.

Lance is late.

After half an hour of waiting alone, she calls his Pokégear. He doesn't pick up. She toys with the idea of going home, but that would mean facing Blue. So instead she orders another coffee – her third one today, and the caffeine is making her vibrate – and thinks about Blue, and his hands, and his tongue on her legs, and the way he looked at her the morning after like she was something he regretted. She wishes she could let Charizard out of his Pokéball to distract her, but Pokémon aren't allowed inside the café. By the time Lance actually shows up, Leaf is sick and angry and miserable and hyperactive.

Lance must see the look on her face, because he holds up a hand and says, "Don't jump down my throat."

"I've been here for fifty minutes!"

"I know, I'm sorry. I would've called you but I didn't get a chance. We had an Elite Four meeting – yeah, can I get a cup of green tea and a plate of truffle fries, please, thanks – and Koga never showed up. Literally never showed up."

He looks so wiped out that some of Leaf's anger drains away, but still she says peevishly, "Well, I don't understand why that kept you so busy you couldn't call."

"He hasn't come to the last five meetings. We were debating whether or not to kick him out."

"Oh. Can you do that?"

Lance sighs. "Usually, no? But I don't think there's ever been a member of the Elite Four who disrespected his duties like this. He's been absent when there were challengers."

"Is that really bad? Blue and Giovanni used to go absent all the time."

"They're just Gym Leaders. It's different for the Elite Four."

"So what are you gonna do?"

"I'm going to have to talk to him. But it's hard, because no one knows where he is. We're thinking about getting a temporary replacement, but that would leave one of the gyms empty." Leaf hopes he doesn't ask her. She really doesn't want to be a member of the Elite Four, stuck in a stuffy room all day. But Lance just says, "I was actually thinking about asking Eusine, but then this whole debacle happened. My hands are pretty tied, to be honest." He smiles at her. "Don't worry. I wasn't going to ask you. You'd hate it."

"I would. I'm sorry."

"Everything would just be so much better if we could work this Team Rocket business out."

"I have the paper thing." Leaf pulls the taped-up scraps out of her bag. "It looks like a map?"

"A map!"

"Don't get too excited. It's not a place I recognize."

Lance examines it, obviously doesn't recognize it either, but he's cheered visibly. "Still, it's definitely a lead. We'll keep poking around. Silver and Morty are in the process of talking to the other gym leaders. Something will work out eventually."

Leaf smiles and finishes Lance's truffle fries. They chat for another half hour or so. Lance drops her off at home afterwards, still reluctant to leave her alone even though she insists she's fine. When she walks through the door, Blue is sitting on the couch, watching TV just like he used to. Charizard shakes his head and snorts.

Everything is just so confusing.

"Sorry," Blue mutters at the screen.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N:** So I originally planned for this story to be 30,000 words total. It was also supposed to be much more Blue/Leaf-centric. The story is now at about 27k and the ending is at least 5,000 to 10,000 words away. Needless to say, the story has gotten out of hand. As has Team Rocket.

But! Even though I'm really shit at responding, the reviews keep me going and are highly appreciated. It's so lovely to know that people are reading and enjoying my work. So, thank you and please keep sending me your comments!

I promise you a proper Blue/Leaf sex scene in the future. This is not that scene.

* * *

"Yeah, well," Leaf says, because it's who they are, "that doesn't change the fact that you're an asshole."

"You'll just have to deal with it, I guess." Blue picks up the remote control and puts it down again. "How's Lance?"

"He's good. Trouble with the Elite Four."

"Which is it? Is he good, or is there trouble with the Elite Four?"

"Trouble," Leaf admits, sitting down. The distance that was there on the first day is nothing compared to the space that sits between them now.

"Well? Is it confidential? You and Lance's little secret?"

"I don't know if it's a secret or not, but it's not like you have friends, so there's no danger in telling you. Koga hasn't shown up for weeks, apparently."

Blue frowns and turns the volume down. "Oh. That's actually kind of a big deal."

"That's what Lance says. I didn't really get it, because you used to ditch the Viridian Gym all the time, but apparently it's only okay when you do it."

"I did not ditch the gym _all the time_."

"Lyra says she found you on Cinnabar and you wouldn't even battle her until she had seven badges."

"I wasn't going to waste my time battling every trainer who showed up to my gym!"

"Blue. That was literally your job."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't any good at it anyway," he mutters. "She throttled me."

"Don't act so wounded. She throttled me too."

"She has _pigtails_."

Pigtails and bruises. Leaf doesn't want to think about it. "So, you were apologizing?"

Blue groans and reaches out to clap his hand over her mouth, but at the last minute his fingers stutter and he pulls back. He still hasn't looked her in the eye. "You're the worst. I might be a decent person if you didn't rub it in my face every time I tried to do something nice."

"You can't rub the nice things a person's done in their face. You can only rub bad things in someone's face. And you don't get to be a dickhead and then apologize every time. That's not how it works."

"I didn't know you were such an expert on not being a dickhead."

"Girls can't be dickheads," Leaf says primly. "The point is, I don't care how sorry you are. You don't get to be sorry unless you're also going to stop being a jerk to me in public."

Blue puts his feet up on the coffee table. "I'm not a jerk to you in public. What are you talking about?"

At first Leaf thinks he's being sarcastic. But he's serious, cocking his head at her like he wants an answer to the question. "Um, today? When you were like, hey Leaf we didn't have sex shut the fuck up?"

"What? Okay, first of all, I definitely didn't tell you to shut the fuck up, and second of all, you denied it first. So don't give me your shit."

"I'm not giving you shit! Why do you always assume everything's my fault? What the fuck are you apologizing for if it's not that?"

"For strapping you down and fucking you, Leaf," Blue snaps. "I'm apologizing for that."

Leaf opens and closes her mouth. A flush crawls up her neck. She can't tell him she liked it, she can't. He clearly didn't like it at all. It's been eating him all day and he wouldn't touch her at all this morning. He regrets having sex with her. He wishes he hadn't done it.

This is literally the worst thing that has ever happened to Leaf.

"Well, there's an easy solution for that," she says, keeping her voice breezy. "We just won't do it again."

Blue glances at her through his spiky hair. "Really?"

What is that in his voice? It sounds suspiciously like hope. Whatever it is, it's stabbing Leaf in the stomach. "Sure," she says. "But don't, like, make it weird. We can just hang out. Like before."

"And what?" he says, almost scathingly. "Be friends?"

_We were never friends._ "Roommates."

Now he's looking at her, looking at her hard. "All right. I'll keep an eye out for the utility bill."

Leaf nods, gets up, goes into the kitchen, promptly leaves the kitchen, and scurries into her bedroom with as much dignity as possible, shutting the door behind her. She lets Charizard out of his Pokéball and sobs silently into his massive belly. But then she finishes crying and looks up at Charizard. He looks back with concern and maybe a hint of anger at Blue – she knows she hurt Blue in their Pokémon battle, but she didn't deserve this, nobody deserves this – and Leaf takes a deep breath and nods. She'll be okay. She's always okay. Enough of this. She will not sleep with Blue again. She will not brush against him when she sits down on the sofa. She will not find excuses to ask him little questions. She won't give him anything at all.

#

Of course, it would be much easier to avoid Blue if they didn't have to keep meeting to discuss Team Rocket.

Dragging Eusine out of the Burned Tower seems to have officially cemented Blue's position in the group, because when Lyra shows up at Lance's place for a meeting after a long day of training, Blue's already there, frowning at a cup of green tea like he thinks it's Arbok venom. He's sitting next to Silver, who's complaining about the bureaucracy. Oh, right. Silver and Blue are friends.

That's fine. He can be friends with whomever he pleases, as long as it isn't her.

She sits down with Lyra and strikes up an involved conversation about the Safari Zone, but she's painfully aware of Blue the whole time. They haven't spoken, not properly, since four days ago when he apologized for the whole kinky sex deal. They've crossed paths in the living room and the kitchen, but haven't said more than cursory hellos. Blue is filling up even more space than usual, and to Leaf it seems as though he's going out of his way to be in the apartment, always mucking about on her game console or cooking dinner. It's as if he's daring her.

Leaf's not going to bite.

He hasn't bought any more whiskey, though. Or if he has, he's not keeping it in the kitchen.

Luckily gossip is Lyra's specialty, and she prattles on while Leaf fidgets. Eventually Lance comes over and sits down, blocking her view of Blue, which is a relief, and then Eusine and Morty arrive and the session starts for real.

They begin by examining Leaf's map.

"No idea," Morty says and passes it to Eusine.

"I'm not even sure it's a map."

"Yes, it is, look at those lines."

"What's with all the squares?"

"They're rooms, stupid. See? It's the inside of a building."

"Oh. I thought you meant it was like a country or town map. Okay, I see it."

"It doesn't make sense though," Silver says, pulling it closer to peer at it. "Buildings are rectangular; they have the same amount of space on each floor. But if this map is to scale, then the bottom floor has much less space than the top. That's impossible."

"I bet you're looking at it upside-down." Blue takes the map, turns it upside-down, and squints at it. "Oh. No. You're right."

"I'm always right."

"You're worse than Leaf."

"Don't get me started –" Leaf begins, and Blue flashes her a nasty grin – _ha_ – and she clams up. Lance takes the map and folds it.

"Forget the map for now. Morty, Silver, have you gotten any leads with the gym leaders?"

"The Johto leaders don't know anything," Morty replies, "although everyone's eager to help."

"I've talked to everybody but Sabrina and Surge," says Silver.

"Why haven't you talked to Sabrina or Surge?"

"They haven't been around. They won't answer my calls. I even got Blue to call Sabrina, and she still didn't pick up. You know how much she likes him. Ow. Blue, you stepped on my foot. Don't do that."

Lance chews his lip. "Sabrina's the one who forbade us from searching Giovanni's old hideout."

Silver levels a deadpan look at him. "Yes. I know that."

"Do you think...?"

"Surge didn't pick up on the day Giovanni emailed the Silph President, either," Leaf interrupts, suddenly remembering. "I mean, no one did, but everyone else had a reason."

"That was months ago, Leaf," Blue scoffs.

"Yes," Lance says, "but presumably Giovanni's been planning for years."

"He'd been using that hideout for years, actually," says Leaf. "He told me while he was dragging me up the stairs by my hair."

Everyone looks at each other.

"They're gym leaders," says Morty, hesitantly.

Eusine frowns. "Not everyone is as upstanding as you, dear."

"That's true," Lyra says, "Silver here is also a gym leader."

"I am _very_ upstanding."

"You made Jasmine cry once," Lance points out. "And you're technically a Pokémon thief."

"Will you never get over the Jasmine thing? I was eleven years old! And Professor Elm gave me that Pokémon."

"Yeah. A year after you stole it." This from Leaf.

"I have all the paperwork! Typhlosion is mine. Don't act like I steal Pokémon just for the fun of it!" Silver's voice goes up a little at the end, and Lyra puts her hand on his knee. Blue edges away a bit. Leaf's throat catches.

"You don't," she says. "I told you before, you're not your father. Don't be so insecure if you haven't done anything wrong."

"She doesn't mean it, Silver," Lyra whispers. Which is stupid, because Leaf does mean it. Silver is a Pokémon thief, there's no way around it, and he shouldn't be insecure if he doesn't have anything to be insecure about. But Silver's hackles have gone down, so she lets it go. There's still Team Rocket to discuss, and she's not interested in starting a fight when Blue's still in the room.

"We can't accuse Surge and Sabrina of anything until we've talked to them," Lance decides.

"We can't talk to them if they won't pick up their phones."

"We'll just have to track them down. They're still in their gyms, right?"

"How should I know?"

"Well, go find out."

"It should probably not be me," Silver says. "Neither of them like me much. Blue, you talk to Sabrina."

"Can't I have Surge?"

"Why don't you want to talk to Sabrina?" Eusine asks slyly.

Blue shrugs and mumbles into his teacup, "She creeps me out."

"That's because she wants to fuck you," says Eusine without a trace of embarrassment. "Although last time I checked, which was... about five months ago, she wanted to fuck you, too, Lance. So you could talk to her."

"Please stop saying the word fuck," Morty stage-whispers.

"Well, apparently no one wants to fuck her back," Leaf remarks, "so." She probably shouldn't be criticizing Sabrina, since undesirability is a trait she apparently shares.

"I can't talk to Sabrina," Lance says gloomily. "I have to find Koga so I can fire him."

"Ooooh, gossip!"

"No, Eusine."

Leaf volunteers, "I'll talk to Surge. We're friendly-ish."

"You are not," Blue says.

"Am too. He likes my guts. You wouldn't know about that because you don't have any."

"Okay!" Morty exclaims, standing and clapping his hands. "Good plan, everybody, we'll reconvene after the weekend at mine? Sounds good, see you later, come on, Eusine."

Leaf and Lyra hang about for a bit to help with the tidying up. Lance scolds her for losing her temper with Blue, but he manages to do it in such a way that she feels better afterwards. Then, after she and Lyra have left, Lyra says to her,

"You can't say things like that to him."

"Can't say what!"

"I don't mean Lance, idiot."

"Oh. Blue? You don't know shit about what I can say to Blue."

Lyra crosses her arms. She's trying so hard to look intimidating, it's actually comical, but that's just how she is. Leaf thinks ruefully of the time this reedy little girly-girl came upon her in Mt. Silver. Leaf had been sure she would win the battle without breaking a sweat, and then Lyra beat her into a pulp. She supposes she ought to listen. "I'm not talking about Blue either, and I don't care about what you two have been doing in your free time – although tell me later, obviously, because I really do care, and if you finally bang you'd _better_ tell me because the sexual tension in here is through the _roof_ – but right now I'm talking about Silver. You can't talk to Silver like he's a bad person, Leaf."

Leaf furrows her brow.

"And don't tell me 'To be honest I'm not sure he's _not_ a bad person,'" Lyra chirps in a frighteningly good imitation of Leaf, "because he's not. He's actually a really good person."

"He's such a dick!"

"Yeah, but Leaf, sometimes _you're_ a dick."

"I am not."

"You are! And don't give me that 'girls can't be dicks' line, either! You can't call yourself a feminist and also say that certain insults don't apply to women. And you haven't had to go through what Silver's had to go through, okay? He was raised by Giovanni! Of course he thought it was all right to steal Pokémon, as long as he was strong! Of course he thought it was okay to step over people to get to the top! He's had to overcome that, and you haven't, so just try to be a little more understanding, okay? He works really, really hard to be a good person. So don't try to make him think he's still bad, because he'll believe you."

Leaf's never thought about it like that. "I'm sorry. Should – should I apologize?"

"If you want to."

"I don't, really."

"That's fine. It would probably just make him uncomfortable."

"I don't get why you care about him so much."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you didn't grow up together. You never really traveled together. He lives in another country. I'm just surprised you know him so well. It's not an insult, I just... I'm surprised. I don't think I know anybody that well." _Not even myself_, Leaf thinks ruefully. Probably the only person who knows her that well is Charizard.

Lyra just shuffles a bit, her eyes big. "I don't know. He just... he gets me."

And there's not much Leaf can say to argue with that.


	14. Chapter 14

The next day is Friday, so Leaf goes to see the Silph President. Predictably, it's a tense, unpleasant meeting, but Leaf is too preoccupied with thoughts of Surge to really care. She's used to the President's edginess by now, anyway. She shows him the map, hoping he might recognize it, but it only freaks him out, so she finishes her coffee and shuffles out the door. She's sort of hoping that maybe Surge won't be in his gym. She is not excited to ask him if he's been working with Team Rocket, and tact has never been her strong suit. She's so preoccupied with her thoughts that she runs straight into the man standing in the lobby.

"Oh! Oh, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"

"I'm just fine," the man says. He sounds amused. "Are _you_ okay?"

"Yeah. Just distracted."

"What have you got there?" He nods to the map clenched in her fist. Instantly Leaf's guard goes up. She takes the measure of the man: early middle age, with silver hair and a well-cut suit. He looks respectable enough, but then, so does Giovanni. Just because he's respectable doesn't mean he's not a villain.

"Who are you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I assumed because I know who you are, you would know me as well." He reaches out a hand to shake. "My name is Steven Stone. I'm visiting from Hoenn."

The name sounds familiar, but Leaf can't place it. "How do you know who I am?"

"You were the Pokémon Champion eight years ago, yes? I was the Champion of Hoenn at that time. Or, well, I had recently given up my post, but still. You developed quite the transpacific reputation. I remember rather hoping you would make it across the ocean so we could have a battle." He smiles apologetically. "I'm not in the mood right now, I'm afraid, and you seem to be in a hurry. But we ought to meet up again sometime; I've heard you're a marvelous trainer."

"Oh! Steven Stone! I've heard of you. Do you know Brendan and May?"

"Those are names I haven't heard in a while. How do you know Brendan and May?"

"My – er – rival used to do research with Professor Oak, and he used to email back and forth with May sometimes, since she worked for Professor Birch." Leaf does not recall how jealous she had been. No, she does not. "She visited Kanto with Brendan once. I actually got to battle Brendan. He was good."

"He was, wasn't he? It took him a couple of tries to beat me, but he managed it in the end." Steven smiles. "Anyway, I won't keep you."

"Let's exchange phone numbers, or something?"

"Certainly." As he's programming his number into her Pokégear, he asks, "Can I ask where you're going in such a rush?"

"Um." Can she trust Steven? "It's about Team Rocket."

Steven just looks confused. "Team What?"

"Rocket."

"Aqua?"

"Ro-cket. Do you not have Team Rocket in Hoenn?"

"No. They couldn't be worse than Teams Aqua and Magma, though. You haven't heard this story? They tried to revive the ancient weather Pokémon, Groudon and Kyogre."

Leaf actually has heard this story, because it was all over the news, but she refrains from saying so. "Team Rocket is worse. They stole my legendary Pokémon – Zapdos, Moltres, and Articuno – and my friends' as well. Lugia, Ho-Oh, Suicune, Entei, and Raikou. The only one I've got left is Mewtwo."

Steven whistles. "You've got Mewtwo? We need to battle."

"Oh, I don't use it. It's dangerous."

"Is that what your paper is for, then? Something with Team Rocket?"

"Yes. It's a map we found in their old hideout." She uncrumples it and shows it to him.

He peers at it. "I've seen this."

"You're kidding!"

"I'm not. I can't place where, but I've definitely seen this. This is somewhere in Hoenn."

"That's why none of us recognized it!"

"It's really quite unfortunate that none of the Kanto or Johto top trainers have come to Hoenn. We're not completely uncivilized, you know."

Leaf flushes. "I'm sorry, I just –"

Steven smiles and hands the map back. "I'll tell you what. This Team Rocket is clearly bad news. I'll keep my ears out, look through some of my files, talk to the Hoenn gym leaders, and see if I can locate this place. Okay?"

"Thank you. Thank you so much!"

"Happy to help. And now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to talk to the security guard." Conspiratorially, he whispers, "I've been trying to get them to show me their newest Upgrade for a year now."

"Even I haven't seen it," Leaf assures him. "It's top-secret."

"I'll manage it eventually. Have a good day, Leaf."

"You too." She leaves in a much better mood than she's been in all week. She rather likes Steven Stone.

* * *

Of course, then she needs to go and talk to Surge.

As a matter of fact, Surge is not at the gym. Leaf isn't completely surprised. The surprising bit is that everyone else in the gym is happy to see her.

"Leaf! How are you, lass?"

"How many times do I have to tell you, Preston? I'm not a Lass." But it's friendly banter, and she gives him a gentle, quick hug. "Have you seen Surge?"

His face falls. "He's not with you?"

"He hasn't returned my calls for months." This is a slight exaggeration – Leaf hasn't actually tried to call Surge for months. She doesn't feel bad about the lie, though. "You don't have any idea where he is?"

"No. He went to Hoenn for vacation a month or so ago, but the last time we saw him in the gym was two weeks ago. I haven't seen him since."

Leaf tries to think if anything happened two weeks ago. Yes. That was when Giovanni kidnapped her. "He's somewhere in Kanto, then?"

"I have no idea. He hasn't answered his Pokégear at all. I'm worried something's happened to him."

"I'll find him," Leaf promises. She squeezes Preston's hand, makes sure she's got his number, and heads out to track down Surge. He's got to be somewhere. If he is working with Giovanni, then he was probably using his gym as an alibi during the kidnapping. Where else is he likely to be?

The Power Plant.

Leaf flies to Cerulean and surfs down the river to the Power Plant. Surge is nowhere to be found in the grass outside. She grits her teeth in frustration and goes in, flanked by Charizard; maybe she can ask if the Manager has seen Surge recently.

Security waves her in. From the doorway of the Generator Room, she glimpses Surge's thick muscular shoulder and pauses. He's here, chatting animatedly with the Manager. So he hasn't completely dropped off the face of the planet after all.

The Manager spots her and cries, "Leaf!"

He sounds pleased to see her. But is Leaf just imagining the look of displeasure on Surge's face?

"Hello," she says, approaching. "What are you talking about?"

"Surge here was just asking me about how the Generator works. He wanted to know if it was just the Machine Part that keeps it going, or what else is involved. We've got an amateur engineer on our hands!" The Manager beams.

"Do you two talk about that stuff a lot?"

"Oh, no, no. I haven't seen Surge in months, actually. Where have you been, Surge?"

"Around," Surge answers. He's got a big, blustery voice; even regular volume, for him, sounds like a roar. "How've you been, Leaf? What brings you here?"

"I've been looking for you, actually. How come you haven't been answering anybody's phone calls?"

He laughs. "So accusatory! I'm a busy man, lass!"

"I'm not a Lass." But it's not a funny joke this time. Leaf is sure, now, that Surge is hiding something, whether or not it has to do with Team Rocket. She's just not sure what. "Well, I wanted to talk to you."

"On my way out, actually. Lovely to chat, Manager, but –"

"No." As if on cue, Charizard blocks the doorway. "I want to talk to you, Surge. You might as well stick around too, Manager."

"Shoot," says the Manager, cheerfully.

"Well, I don't know if you've heard this from the Silph President or through the grapevine or whatever, but two weeks ago Lyra and I were kidnapped by Team Rocket."

The Manager drops his clipboard.

"Giovanni stole our legendary Pokémon, as well as Silver's, and he tortured Lyra. A few days later he stole Suicune from Eusine. We've contacted the gym leaders to try and track him down, but you, Surge, haven't been responding. Why not?"

"I told you, I've been busy. But I don't know anything about Giovanni. Kidnapped, you say? Hm."

"After years and years of hiding," Lyra emphasizes. "Hiding right in Saffron. Someone must have been helping him. Someone with military connections, to control the police."

Surge scoffs. "Are you _accusing_ me?"

"Yes."

The only noise in the room is the thrumming of the Generator.

"Get out of the way, Leaf," Surge booms. His voice and stance are threatening now. The Manager looks back and forth between them, his eyes massive. "You're just a little girl. Of course I'm not working with Team Rocket. You don't know what you're talking about."

"Giovanni tortured Lyra," Leaf says again, tossing a Pokéball in her hand. She wishes she had a ground-type Pokémon, but Vileplume will have to do. "Kidnapped me and dragged me naked and blindfolded around the hideout. It was humiliating, frankly."

Surge's eyes drop from her face.

"I'm disappointed, Surge," she says. "I thought we were friends. I don't appreciate being betrayed."

Surge is a military man. He, unlike her, has a marvelous sense of strategy. He hurls out his Magnezone into the middle of the Generator Room. Leaf sends her Vileplume after it, and while she's distracted by the action, he rolls under Charizard's wing and bolts. Leaf whips around to try to go after him, but she trips over Charizard. While her back is turned, Magnezone breaks through a window and floats quickly away.

Leaf bolts out the door, but Surge is already gone. Infuriated, she storms back inside. The Manager is stunned and petrified, but he's handling it better than the Silph President, which is to say: he's also enraged.

"Giovanni probably wants the Power Plant for something," she informs him. "We still don't know what. What did you tell Surge?"

"EVERYTHING! THAT TRAITOR! WHAT'S GOING ON?"

"Calm down, Manager. If it's any consolation, Giovanni's probably not going to move in on you until he's done with me."

"What do you mean? What's he want with you? My precious Generator!"

"He still doesn't have Mewtwo. That's the only Johto/Kanto legendary he's missing. We think he's hiding out somewhere in Hoenn. We don't know where, but we're trying to find out so we can attack him before he attacks us. Trust me, we're doing our best to keep you safe."

The Manager is breathing hard. "Who's 'we'?"

"Me, Lance, Lyra, Silver, Blue, Morty, and Eusine. You can trust us. Stay away from Surge, Sabrina, and Koga, though; they've been MIA." Leaf rubs her forehead. "Everything is so confusing."

"If Surge comes back in here I'll use my Zap Cannon on him," the Manager promises, growling. Leaf nearly laughs. The Zap Cannon wouldn't even phase Surge, but it's good to have the Manager on her side.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N:** Ugh you guys I can't write smut! It's really difficult! It's embarrassing and difficult. So sorry if I did a shit job, and sorry this chapter took so long to get out. I will probably edit this entire story in a couple of years and hopefully make it much better. So come back then.

And on that note, this chapter is rated a heavy M. So if you're not comfortable with that, you should skip it.

* * *

So Surge is working for Giovanni, although Leaf still doesn't know why. So are Sabrina and Koga. Apparently Sabrina wasn't in her gym, but Blue found her meditating in the small room above Mr. Psychic's house. She dodged his questions for a while (and flirted shamelessly), and then attacked him when he confronted her about Team Rocket. Of course, Leaf hasn't heard any of this firsthand, because she's still ignoring Blue. She gets the news from Lyra. And Lance found Koga by questioning Janine, and when he found him he interrogated him about Team Rocket and then fired him. So all three of those gym leaders are enemies, now. And now that Leaf and her friends know that, they're at a standstill.

And still Leaf has not spoken to Blue.

Her resolution to ignore him lasts another two whole days, right up until Lance goes into the Dragon Den for a week of deep meditation.

"I'm sorry," he tells her. He's really agitated. "It's the worst possible time, but all the Dragon Masters have to do it. I've already put it off for nearly a week."

"Lance, don't worry. Now that I know to look out for Team Rocket, I can take care of myself. I've beaten you, you know. I think I can handle a Grunt with a Rattata."

"Giovanni is cunning. Don't let your guard down. If anything happens, I've told the old man at the front to let people in with the password 'Extremespeed.' Er – no one's ever interrupted the Meditation before, though, so if it's not absolutely necessary –"

"Everything will be _fine_. Who knows the password?"

"Just you and Morty. I figure if something happens to one of you, the other can come fetch me. Don't spread it around."

"I won't."

"Stay safe."

"I will! Go sit in your cave."

Lance grins. He hesitates for just barely a second before darting in and pressing his lips to hers. Then he whips his cape about him and hops onto Dragonite and flies away.

Leaf doesn't move for a long time. Charizard snorts.

"Don't laugh at me." He nudges at the space between her shoulder blades until she stumbles forward. "Charizard. _Charizard_."

Charizard shrugs. He likes Lance. Leaf likes Lance too, but.

"He's my friend. I don't want to kiss him! I don't like him that way!"

Charizard shrugs again. The message is obvious. _If you don't want to kiss him, then don't kiss him._

"It's not that simple." Leaf takes a deep breath. "The time has come for drastic measures."

Charizard cocks his head.

"I'm going to have to tell Lyra."

* * *

"WHAT!" Lyra screeches.

"I'm sorry!"

"I hate you!"

"You do not."

"I do too. Tell me you're lying."

"Please don't."

"You had sex with Blue and didn't tell me the second it happened? You're the worst. And you had already made out? Ugh! This violates all the terms of our friendship. Tell me everything right now."

Leaf ducks her head and fixes her eyes on her knees before muttering, "He used a tie."

"You're kidding."

"It wouldn't be a very funny joke."

"Wow! Was it good?"

Her stomach twisting, Leaf says, "Yeah."

"Was it just last night?"

"No. It was the night Team Rocket kidnapped Suicune. Probably the very same second, actually."

"Oh." Lyra's mouth turns down at the corners. "That's why you didn't pick up the phone?"

"Yeah. Sorry."

Lyra thinks about it for a minute before allowing, "I guess you didn't know why we were calling."

"I really didn't. And I was kind of busy, you know."

"That was a while ago, though. I'm surprised. You guys have been all, like, still weird and stuff. I sort of just thought you needed to fuck it out and then you'd be good."

Leaf tilts her face down again. Her voice is barely audible even to her own ears. "He didn't like it."

"Huh?"

"The sex. He didn't like it. He doesn't want to do it anymore."

"Really?" Lyra sounds doubtful. "He's a boy, though."

"I guess I'm just really bad at sex."

"He said that? What a jerk."

"Well, no, but – basically."

"Ugh. Leaf. You're being so cryptic. What did he say?"

"He said he was sorry for doing it."

Lyra sighs, clearly frustrated. "How did he say it?"

"What do you mean, how did he say it? What difference does it make? He's sorry, he wishes he hadn't done it, that's it. And then Lance kissed me and – I feel bad."

"It's not like you led Lance on. He's totally into you, so that sucks and is kind of awkward, but you're not obligated to be interested in him. Don't feel bad."

"But Lyra, what do I _do_?"

"I can't believe you had kinky bondage sex your first time banging Blue."

More like the last time. "Oh please. Don't give me that. Like you wouldn't let Silver tie you to that fancy black headboard of his." Leaf has actually never addressed the weird relationship between Lyra and Silver before, and as soon as she says it she feels like she's crossed a line. Lyra turns scarlet and shrills,

"I'm dating Morty!"

"Morty's practically dating Eusine."

"Yeah, well, he's practically dating me too! And how do you know what Silver's bed looks like?"

"Jealous, are we?"

"No!"

Leaf shrugs. "I took him some medicine from Cianwood once, when he was really sick. You were on vacation or he would've called you. To be honest I think I was like the tenth person he called. Don't take it personally. It was a beautiful bed, though." Silver has excellent taste in furniture.

"Stop changing the subject," Lyra sniffs. "I don't want to talk about Silver right now."

"You always want to talk about Silver."

"We were talking about you and Blue. Do you want my advice or not?"

"No."

"Too bad. The point is, you've been waiting to fuck Blue for, like, ten years."

"Ten years ago I was nine!"

"And he's been waiting to fuck you for ten years, too," Lyra continues as if Leaf hadn't spoken, "and obviously he feels really weird about it because you've got this love-hate thing going on, and you know he was already worried about it being consensual because he ran away when you got drunk, and like, Leaf, he's obviously sorry because he's worried _you_ didn't like it. Not because _he_ didn't like it."

"But I really liked it!"

"Yeah, I know. So show him that."

"I can't. I'm not speaking to him."

"That is a terrible solution. You live together."

"How am I..." Leaf trails off. She doesn't know how to ask what she wants to ask. _How am I supposed to prove to him that I like having sex with him? That I like having him around, even though he's the most obnoxious dickhead ever to walk the planet? How am I supposed to make him happy without making myself miserable? Without losing all my pride? Without alienating everyone? Especially Lance?_

"I dunno," Lyra says. "You could tie him down instead?"

"That," Leaf says, "is the worst idea I've ever heard."

* * *

"Are you worried that I didn't like having sex with you?"

Blue literally chokes on his dinner. Leaf would be pleased at having shocked him if she weren't so on edge, and if it didn't seem like he might actually choke to death. She's never done the Heimlich on anyone in real life. But then he swallows. "What?"

"I'm just asking. Because you got all weird the next day."

"I wasn't weird. You're weird."

"Your face is weird."

"Original."

"You mean classic. Answer the question."

"I don't have to do what you tell me."

Leaf tries to look like she's keeping herself together. Calm, cool, in control. She has never felt less in control. "Are you sure?"

Blue puts his fork down. As he does, Leaf thinks she sees his fingers trembling, just a little bit. "What's that supposed to mean?"

_Say it. Say it. Spit it out._ Worst case scenario, he hates her even more, and how much difference does that make, really? "I was just thinking, maybe I could, um, tie you down. Switch it up a bit. Even the score, like."

Blue sucks in his breath. "Thought we were just going to be roommates."

Leaf forces a smile. "Not really fair, is it? You got to do whatever you wanted to me; I want a turn." When she'd developed this plan, she'd intended to tell him something along the lines of _You make me feel like I'm made of air_ or _You made me see colors that I'd never even imagined before_. But she can't do anything when she's talking to Blue except turn everything into a power play. But that's fine, right? As long as it works.

Leaf has forgotten what, exactly, she's working toward. She thinks it had something to do with making everything less awkward. She's not sure she succeeded, but she does think Blue might be about to get naked again, so it's a fair trade-off.

"Just once," Blue says slowly. "To... even the score."

"Exactly."

Blue stands up. He's so tall. He brushes past her to put his bowl in the sink, even though he's only eaten half of his soup. "Okay."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. You're right. It's only... fair."

So she leads him into her bedroom. Charizard has been hovering in the living room this whole time, probably out of a misguided sense of propriety or maybe just to spare her feelings. He's her Pokémon; he obviously knows exactly what's going on, but how do you talk about your sex life with your Pokémon? Now he gives her a judgmental look, but still he sweeps off into Blue's bedroom, either to stay out of the way or to hang out with Blastoise. Probably they're going to gossip about what their owners are doing.

Leaf hopes not. She flushes at the thought. Or maybe she's flushing at Blue's fingers pressed against the small of her back, pushing her into the bedroom.

Even the score. Arceus. She's fucked either way.

Blue shuffles ahead of her and stands next to the bed but doesn't sit down. Leaf locks the door and busies herself by rifling through her closet, which proves a bit of a struggle because no one's turned on the light. She doesn't have any ties, but she's got a long-sleeved silk blouse that she wore three years ago to some fancy dress party. She pulls it off the hanger and holds it up. "Think this'll do?"

Blue thumps down on the bed. His eyes are huge. "Yeah."

"Okay. Take your shirt off."

"No fair. I didn't make you take your shirt off."

"Well, too bad. You're not in charge right now. Take it off."

Blue looks at her for a long, sensitive instant and then pulls his shirt off over his head. He lays down on the bed, on his back, and fixes his eyes on the ceiling. Leaf has no idea what she's doing. She literally has no fucking idea. She's never tied someone's wrists together before. Blue's all laid out for her, his outline powerful even in the darkness. A thrill of possession streaks through her. Who cares if he thinks the sex is weird, if he hates her? For the next few minutes, at least, he's hers. All hers. Nobody else's.

She straddles him, picks up his hands, maneuvers them to a spot above his head, and ties his wrists together with the sleeves of the blouse. When she sits back up, her knees on either side of his hips, his eyes follow her, dragging from her jawline down her neck and then flickering back up to her eyes. He looks – Leaf doesn't know; no one's ever looked at her like that before, at least not while she was watching, and she finds herself murmuring,

"Tell me what you want."

"Huh?"

She kisses his chest. "You heard me."

"No" – Blue gulps – "you're supposed to do what you want. That's what – we're evening the score."

Until now Leaf did not know that it was possible to feel sick and aroused at the same time. Well, fine then. She'll do what she wants. She can treat Blue like he's a meal, if he expects her to.

So she stands up and undresses, aware of Blue's eyes fixed on her the whole time. She gets the spare duvet out of the closet, because Blue's on top of the quilt and shifting everything around would be too complicated. She undoes his belt buckle and strips him down, carefully and efficiently, and then she settles her naked body over his, drags the duvet over both of them, and presses her face into Blue's.

His mouth opens immediately. His erection presses up against her hip – at least his body's responding properly, even if emotionally he's on a completely different plane – and the inside of his mouth is hot and slick and perfect. The inside of Leaf's head goes black. For several minutes there's nothing in the world but heat and skin and tongue and Blue, and she forgets that everything is so very, very fucked up.

She kisses the corner of his mouth. His cheek. His cheek again, a little farther over. Four kisses along the edge of his jaw. One long, open-mouthed kiss against his throat, and another with teeth to his collarbone.

Blue swears gently and bucks his hips up.

She does the teeth again, pressing her hands down into his hips to keep him still. She kisses all the way down his chest, sucking one of his nipples between her teeth to hear him gasp. All of her veins are quivering. She kicks off the duvet. She kisses down his stomach and licks the place where his hip-bone juts out and then, without any warning, takes his dick into her mouth.

Even she doesn't know she's going to do it until she's done it, but now it seems clear that there was never any other option. Her name slips from Blue's throat; he makes it sound like a curse word. She drags her tongue up the hot length of him, using her hands as well, taking him as far as she can (which isn't much, she hates giving blow jobs, but this one is sort of different because she's taking Blue apart), and she keeps it up for several minutes, stroking and sucking until Blue chokes out, "Leaf – you should – I'm –" and then she pulls off and works him with her hand until Blue's voice shatters around half of her name and ends in an uncontrollable groan.

Leaf's traveled extensively in two countries, seen innumerable sights, and battled four legendary Pokémon. She has never seen anything as beautiful as Blue.

She collapses on top of him, her face pressed into his chest, her fingers clenching at his ribs. She can't stop shaking. She wants to come, but she can wait. She'll wait for hours if it means she gets to keep Blue here. He came on her stomach and chest and now she's smearing it all over but she doesn't care at all. She's so in love with him she can hardly think straight.

"Leaf," Blue says, his voice fragile, "come here."

"Don't go."

"Come – come up here."

Propping herself up on her elbows, she kisses him. It's a long, slow, deep kiss, and she keeps her eyes closed for it. She doesn't want to look Blue in the eye. She's afraid of what she might see.

He twitches his head away, gives a little cough and mumbles, "That – that was lovely, but I meant, um, come up here."

"I'm right here."

"I meant sit on my face, Leaf, Arceus."

Leaf blushes furiously, which is ironic considering she just had Blue's dick in her mouth. "But I wanted to do what you wanted."

Blue takes a deep breath, looks her straight in the eye, and says hoarsely but clearly, "I would like you to sit on my face, please."

So Leaf does, her legs trembling like they've got a mind of their own. She straddles him, one knee on each pillow, and this seems like a terrible idea. "Won't I crush you? Blue, you really don't have to –"

Blue makes an inarticulate noise and presses a kiss to the inside of her thigh, and all of Leaf's good intentions go out the window. She digs her fingernails into his bound hands and squeezes his fingers and throws her head back and rides him until she comes so hard she forgets how to think, dimly aware of him bucking his hips into the empty air. When it's done she slides off him and kisses him fiercely, she doesn't care if it's disgusting, and he pulls back just long enough to ask, "Can you untie me?" before sealing his mouth over hers again, and she scrabbles at his wrists and ruins the blouse but he's free and he wraps his hands around her head and neck and just drags her in like he's afraid she'll vanish if he doesn't hold on tight.

Finally they drift off to sleep wrapped around each other like plants. Leaf remembers something. "You never answered the question."

"Huh?"

"Were you worried that I didn't like having sex with you?"

"Shut the fuck up, Leaf," Blue says affectionately. He kisses her again, close-mouthed this time, like Lance had done earlier.

"You're a much better kisser than Lance," Leaf mumbles without thinking.

Blue goes rigid.


End file.
